


The Starlight Justiciar

by AphantaRay



Series: The Starlight Justiciar [1]
Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: F/M, Headcanon Mechanics, Nonbinary Character, Post-Canon, Years Later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-03-17 19:51:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 24
Words: 92,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18971902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AphantaRay/pseuds/AphantaRay
Summary: It’s been four years since the Magic was destroyed, cleaving Mewni and Earth into Mewnearth. The denizens of the recklessly united dimensions continue to struggle to find the best way to live in the new world, while a powerless Star gathers the strength to continue her fight against the mounting forces of evil.





	1. Against the Rule

**Author's Note:**

> If you like my writing but want something fluffier, check out [my other works](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AphantaRay/works).

“Hiii-YA!” Marco bellowed, flipping another contestant to the mat and claiming another victory.

Star cheered from the front row of the stands, “Marco! That was so cool!” She could barely hear her voice over the cheering crowd of humans, mewmans, and monsters that had gathered to watch the tournament in the parking lot of the Hill-Trank strip mall. It was the semi-final round and Marco had made his way through four intimidating opponents on the way to the championship belt. Of course he would, though, Star thought to herself – a tinge of envy poisoning the words. She had tried her hand at the tournament herself and had been eliminated in the second round by a very aggressive 5-year-old with a real menacing death stare. Star’s martial arts garb – on loan from Marco – had been torn and scraped up in her fights, and she had more bruises than she wanted to admit.

Marco ran over to Star after the match, a familiar combination of exhaustion, excitement, and nerves. “How did I look out there?”

“So cool! So cool. That lady really had you for a while there, though.”

“I know! I never knew where her punches were coming from. And that tail! The sweeps, Star. There were just so many sweeps.” He was on his butt more times than Star could count, and he was clearly feeling it. Literally. With his hand. “I’m not going to be able to sit for a week.”

Star pulled him down onto the bench beside her and told him to stop being such a baby about it. The last semi-final match was starting soon, and she was excited to see who Marco would be taking down next.

During the break in the action, she looked over the crowd. Families and friends from different parts of the Mewnearth were gathered together for this. It was heartwarming. She had been working hard for years since the big Cleave to get things more… normal… and it was encouraging to see that at least in this makeshift arena in the middle of a parking lot, everyone could sit together and cheer.

Next up to fight was the kid who beat Star. The little girl continued to glare directly at Star as she made her way to the mats. “What is that kid’s deal,” Star muttered under her breath.

“I know!” exclaimed Marco, taken by his excitement, “I can’t believe she got you. Lot of potential there.” Marco wiped a tear from his eye.

Star shoved Marco playfully, “Thanks for the support you butt.”

“What! Star this is ~martial arts~. This is sacred ground where we support everyone and celebrate their accomplishments.”

Star tugged anxiously at her sleeve. Of course, she thought, of course it was that. Of course it would be silly to feel bad about losing in a ~martial arts~ tournament. “Yeah okay, I’ll give it to her. The kid must kick a lot of butt. I mean, you know how hard it is to take down a Butterfly.”

“Oh, I know.” Marco smiled, sincere as ever he was.

“Those eyes, though.” Star returned the kid’s menacing glare. “Terrifying.”

Marco let out a big breath, “Ho boy I am not ready for the next one. I sure hope this fight takes a while.”

“You’ll be fine!”

“I don’t know, Star. Both of these fighters are pretty tough. Do you know who that kid is? Tammy Wrathmire. The Wrathmires are a proud warrior family, and she’s won every tournament she’s participated in since she was 3. And that big guy? I mean I’ve never seen him before but just look at him! Those muscles are so majestic.”

Star had in fact already noted the majestic muscles and stored the memory away for later. You don’t see that kind of majesty every day. Honestly, she thought, it’s an injustice that there aren’t more resources devoted to majestic muscle appreciation. Even just a little parade would be nice. Maybe Pony Head could put something together.

The fighters entered the ring, and the referee announced the start of the semi-final match between Tammy Wrathmire and Burles Crushington. And just as the match started, Star thought she saw something odd.

“Hey Marco did the referee just… wink?”

Marco looked kind of dumbfounded for a moment before shrugging it off and telling Star it was probably nothing. “This match is going to be great, just watch.”

Sadly, Burles Crushington made uncharacteristically quick work of Tammy, who normally wore down her opponents by repeatedly flipping them onto the mat from below the knee. But every time she went to grab on to the guy’s legs, she hesitated and backed away at the last second. In a desperate attempt to overcome whatever anxiety was paralyzing her, she ducked low and grabbed his toe by the hair. She even managed to flip him over. Unfortunately for her, Burles had her with his feet and used the momentum of the flip to launch her off of the mat.

Marco had pulled out a notepad and was furiously making notes during the match. “So the legs are… cursed? Electrified? Avoid the legs.” Star saw Marco underlining this phrase with determination.

“They’re not really cursed though right?” Star whispered to Marco. “That’s gotta be against the rules.”

“Oh probably not. But that kid’s a martial arts genius, and if she won’t touch those gams then I sure as heck won’t waste my time trying. That guy’s got plenty of other terrifyingly beautiful muscles to strike.” Marco starting miming chops and punches in the air. Visualizing, he called it. Looking like a goof, Star thought was more appropriate, but whatever; it got him pumped up.

After a short break, it was time for the final fight – Marco’s match. “Wish me luck!”

“You won’t need it! Obviously!”

He always takes these things so seriously, Star thought. She couldn’t help but laugh a little to herself at his stiff and proper walk up to the mat, his overly formal bow – even though Burles was not very interested in bowing – and that intense “give me everything you’ve got” look when the match started.

The referee again announced the start of the match between Marco Diaz and Burles Crushington. And again, Star spotted a wink from the referee. She also saw Marco’s stance waver slightly when he saw it, which was probably not a great sign. But he regained his composure and began giving it his all.

Chops and kicks flew at a staggering pace. Both opponents were pushing hard for a quick victory. But Marco quickly started backing down, taking a defensive stance even after successfully landing a number of critical strikes. Why isn’t he finishing this, Star puzzled. It wasn’t proper to yell during the match, but she wanted to scream out to Marco to finish Burles off. Maybe she could just send “finish him off” vibes into Marco’s brain. She concentrated really hard.

But Marco wouldn’t move in. He was hesitating with every approach. Meanwhile, Burles was making aggressive strides towards Marco, launching feints and jabs with his fists and feet. Every so often a powerful kick would connect, blocked by Marco’s quick reflexes, but still clearly dealing damage. Marco was strong, but he was not a muscly beast. Not yet, anyways, Star thought to herself. Not yet.

Pushed to nearly the edge of the mat, Marco was still playing defense. Star continued to send “finish him” vibes at Marco and hoped it would be enough. “Come on Marco,” she whispered.

And then it looked like everything was over for Marco. In one quick movement, Burles reached out and grabbed Marco by the arm. Star gasped and screamed in an anguished whisper. Burles was huge. His grip strength must be amazing. And he had no trouble throwing opponents from the mat. It was how he had won every match.

In a moment of desperation, Marco regained some of his resolve. He launched a devastating three-strike attack – two heavy kicks to his opponent’s leg and one solid punch to his liver. This should have been enough to at least loosen the grip on his arm, but Burles was unfazed. Marco was tossed out of the ring and out of the tournament.

Marco stood, bowed, and shook hands with the champion. He said something to Burles while they were parting, but all Star could hear over the crowd was “Good match.” Burles laughed at whatever Marco had said, leaving an indignant look on Marco’s face.

“Hey!” Star called him over. “You did great! Second place! That’s practically first place!”

He chuckled, “Yeah not bad, hey? One day that belt will be mine.” Marco clenched his fist and made so determined a look that Star felt a little knock at her heart. It was the sound of some majestic muscle memories being popped out to make room for Marco Diaz looking so cool memories. Then Star saw red.

“Oh Marco your hand is bleeding. Like all over.” The wound looked something like rug burn – skin scraped away with a hundred tiny cuts underneath. His feet were also red with blood. “I’ll go get you some bandages hold on.”

Star ran over to the medical booth and returned with some alcohol wipes and gauze. Marco winced and joked about not knowing his own strength while Star cleaned and wrapped his wounds. “Who’d have guessed you could get rug burn from kicking a guy’s uniform too hard?”

“I would not have guessed that. Frankly I’m not sure I even believe it, Marco Diaz.”

Star knew this was weird. The ref winking. The way the fighters reacted strangely to Burles. This. These wounds weren’t normal during a ~martial arts~ competition.

Marco sighed. “Listen don’t make a big deal about this okay.”

“I can’t promise to not make a big deal about my boyfriend getting bloodied up but go on.”

“I think Burles was cheating. His uniform was covered in… I don’t even know. Thousands of tiny swords? And the referee. I think he knew.”

Yeah that makes sense, thought Star. Marco couldn’t actually lose in a fair fight. He was so–

Marco pounded his own leg with this fist in frustration, “But what bugs me is he didn’t even need to cheat. He could easily have won without resorting to dirty tricks.”

“Whaaaat? No. Come on Marco. You’re way tougher than that guy.” Star glanced over at Burles who was accepting his belt with a weird smile. No wait, she thought. Maybe it _was_ pretty close. He is pretty beefy.

“Cheating.” Marco shook his head sadly. “He sullied the honor and integrity of ~martial arts~ and…” He sighed heavily. “I don’t think I can do anything about it.”

Star looked at her partner’s defeated face and knew what was going on in his head. Rules are rules. Even if the people making the rules don’t play fair, you have to play along to even have a chance at winning.

“Hey, let’s go get some burritos,” Star offered.

On the way out of the parking lot, she spotted that angry looking kid who, yes, continued to glare at Star with unwavering ire, but now Star could see something sad in her eyes. It wasn’t fair.

[](https://www.cutercounter.com/)   



	2. Shoulder Strength

Janna’s voice was elevated over the phone. “Hey Marco I found a new cave full of junk want to come check it out?”

Marco’s wounds were still recovering from the previous week’s tournament, but he couldn’t turn down an invitation to look at some cool garbage. Plus, maybe Janna would be good to talk to, he thought. He didn’t feel like getting Star worked up about his problems, but Janna was pretty stoic and probably wouldn’t care.

They met up at the taco stand for a pre-adventure briefing/lunch/hang out/maybe the cave could wait a bit because Marco has issues/Janna didn’t sign up for issues.

“I don’t know Marco it doesn’t seem like a big deal.” Janna was distracted by a game on a console that did not look Earthen. It had wings. And arms. Was it even a console? “Didn’t you almost win a tournament by cheating a few years ago?”

“I was cursed! I wasn’t trying to cheat!”

“You definitely were though.”

“Okay well I was being influenced by a very persuasive malevolent force but that’s not the point, Janna. The point is when you cheat you should be punished for it. I got disqualified when I cheated. This guy isn’t even going to be caught.”

“I mean you could just tell someone about it.”

Marco sighed, “Can I, though? This feels like one of those things that’s just out of your hands. Sometimes people just get away with doing bad stuff, and no one really cares.”

Janna let the game fall from her attention. The console let out a disappointed sound. “Geeze Marco are you okay? You usually put up a little more fight over The Injustices of the World.” Janna took up a mockingly self-righteous tone.

Marco’s voice was tired. “There’s just a lot of it. I can punch a lot of problems away Janna, but the truth is you can’t just… punch your way through everything that sucks about people.”

“Well not with that attitude. Whatever dude let’s go punch our way through some angry garbage in a cave. You can pretend it’s injustice.”

“That does sound pretty fun.”

The cleaving of the worlds left a lot of weirdness about. Most of the bits and pieces that were brought together did so pretty harmoniously. Earth and Mewni more-or-less just gave each other space, expanding and shifting where needed for whatever popped up nearby.

But some places just didn’t quite cooperate during the move and got jumbled together. Weirder than that, some bits and pieces from other dimensions had gotten dragged into Mewnearth, and so parts of multiple dimensions merged together to create some pretty neat – and occasionally dangerous – junk. Like as in, hey should that old car have legs and be violent? No, it should not. And that is definitely a problem for punches to solve.

There was sort of an assumption that these animated amalgamations were not any more sentient than the animals of Earth, so they could be hunted with as much moral ambiguity as hunting a deer. Marco was never a hunter, but he saw the value in protecting people from mindless violence, so he still got some satisfaction from beating these misbegotten creatures into submission.

For Janna it was just nice to get a chance to play with weird old tech from other dimensions, and having Marco around made the exploration a bit safer. And also, though she wouldn’t say it out loud, she found it more fun having him around.

“So where is this place?” Marco asked.

“Under this retirement home.” Janna pointed to a large fenced-off building with a big security gate out front. “By the way, you need to put this on.” Janna handed Marco what can only be described as a grandma disguise.

“Why…?”

“Duh Marco it’s a retirement home. We have to be retired to get in.” Janna had already donned an outfit that made her look like an old man – complete with a cane, wrinkles, white hair, and thick glasses.

“Right. Never easy with Janna, is it?”

Janna was already climbing the fence at the back of the property. “What?”

\---

When Marco returned to the surface covered in dirt, scratches, and bruises, he found that his phone had a couple of messages waiting for him.

_Mom: I hope you’re alright sweetie. I made you some food. Come home soon._

_Marco: ty mom you’re the best. i’m fine. just hanging out with janna._

_Mom: Oh Janna is such a nice girl. Tell her hi from me._

_Marco: that is a very kind thing of you to say._

“Hey Janna! Janna!”

Janna heaved a sack full of strange goodies up out of the exit hole, then another sack, then clambered out herself. “What!”

“My mom says hi!”

“Okay. Hi. Take one of these bags.” Marco heaved a very heavy bag over his shoulder and continued responding to his messages with one hand while carrying Janna’s junk home. Janna was dragging her bag along the ground, her eyes glinting with joy about her haul.

_Marco: janna says hi._

_Mom: Hi Janna!_

_Marco: ok see you soon._

Another message. This one from Star. She would have been at her Justice Warriors meeting this afternoon. Helping plan some event or another to get people together in Mewnearthen unity, or maybe coordinating with the other chapters to organize protests. Marco was amazed how easily she had transitioned from blowing things up with magic to bringing people together with activism. And he was a little envious how much of a difference she was making. He reflected on the feeling he got from fending off the violent amalgamated creatures with Janna. Was it helping anything?

_StarCap: ~big news~_

_Abs4Days: hit me._

_StarCap: check this out echoecho.com/opinion/martial-arts-integrity-challenged_

_Abs4Days: what is this?_

_StarCap: I wrote that what do you think_

Marco opened the link to find an opinion piece for The Echo Echo – Echo Creek’s only newspaper. It was indeed written by Star and had her usual flair and energy throughout. Her royal upbringing really came out when she wrote seriously, all the words and sentences sounding very proper.

_Abs4Days: oh is this about the tournament?_

_StarCap: yeah_

The article was about cheating and dishonesty and how justice ought to be something every person strived for in every aspect of their lives. She had interviewed a few fighters from the martial arts tournament who shared their love of the sport and their disgust at any form of cheating or dishonesty – that it was “an assault to the integrity of the art, especially when an authority figure allows such atrocities to occur.”

Marco didn’t quite know how to take it. Star hadn’t quoted or named him, but she did describe what happened to him in detail. He felt kind of exposed.

_Abs4Days: there’s so much in here. i’m in here._

_Abs4Days: when did you have the time to put all of this together?_

_StarCap: I was just really upset and I thought writing about it would help, and Pony Head said I should do a big exposé on it, and I thought yeah why not that sounds fun, so I went around and talked to everyone I could find who saw what happened and listen Marco this is a huge problem_

_Abs4Days: did writing about it help?_

_StarCap: kind of_

_StarCap: feeling less helpless now but I don’t think I’m ready to say it’s over_

_StarCap: that cheating muscle beast still has to own up to this_

_Abs4Days: you’re really invested in this_

_StarCap: yeah!_

_StarCap: justice!_

_Abs4Days: oh were you talking about it at the meeting?_

_StarCap: well_

_StarCap: I tried but_

_StarCap: you know we’ve got this big unity dinner event coming up and it’s taking a lot of our resources to plan it_

_StarCap: I think they’ve got better things to focus on than a cheating champ_

_Abs4Days: you need any help with this thing, or is this a star butterfly adventure?_

_StarCap: a little help might be nice_ _♥_

_Abs4Days: i’m just helping janna drag some junk home, you want to hang out after?_

_StarCap: yes please_

_Abs4Days:_ _😊 see you soon_

The final message on his phone was from Tom, who was probably quadruple confirming that Marco was coming to the party he had spent a few weeks organizing. For like six people. Marco replied that yes he would be there and yes he would be bringing an amazing nacho platter with 31-layer dip as promised and yes he would also drive people home if they had a little too much fun. At a dinner party with no alcohol. Tom.

Janna was playing on her maybe-a-game-console with one hand while leaning into dragging her loot along the sidewalk.

Marco marveled, “How are you doing that?”

Janna shrugged, “My thumb?” And true enough, in an amazing display of digital dexterity, she was somehow controlling both the d-pad and the buttons with one thumb without skipping a beat.

Marco was starting to feel the weight of the sack on his shoulder. “What’s in here anyways?”

“Oh you know. Things.”

Janna had a bad habit of forgetting to elaborate. She was working on it, and she’d asked Marco to be a little more persistent so she’d get the hint. “No really Janna tell me what amazing loot we’ve got here.”

“Oh right. Sorry.” She put the game away. “Uh let’s see we have a few corrupted power crystals which are going to be great for my… projects. We have a toy crocodile that got merged with the spirit of a real crocodile making it what is I guess an immortal adorable killing machine. Cool rocks. Writhing, conglomerated books. Unmagicked runes. Non-precious gems. The top half of a suit of armor that may be alive.” Marco noticed for the first time that Janna’s sack was wiggling a bit. He tried to ignore it.

“What about swords? Any cool swords today?” Marco had a fondness for the swords. Sometimes he wondered, could you ever have enough swords?

“Nah. You’ve got enough weird swords, dude.”

“That is a lie and you are a coward for speaking it.”

“Hm. You want a cut of the treasure, though. I understand.” Janna stopped to dig around in her bag before throwing what looked like an ancient ledger at him. “Here ya go dude. Book of charms. Peel ‘em and stick ‘em for good luck.”

Marco opened the book to find dozens of half-empty sheets of shiny or fuzzy stickers featuring adorable animals, anthropomorphic objects, unspeakable words, and fun shapes. “I’m pretty sure these are just stickers.”

“Stuff is whatever you want it to be Marco. That’s how life is.”

Marco dropped off his bag of junk at Janna’s house, went home, cleaned up, and sent Star a message that he was free. She said he should come over to see her fantastic plan. A short dragon-cycle ride later, he was sitting cross-legged on the floor of Star’s bedroom in the old Butterfly castle trying to make sense of her chart which contained very few words and lots of adorable drawings. Janna was also there.

“Why is Janna here?”

“Hi Marco,” Janna waved. Marco waved back.

“Janna is good at plans,” Star asserted.

“She’s right. I am very good at plans.”

“Okay well walk through this one slowly for me. I got pretty lost last time we had a plan briefing.”

“Yes. That did not end well. We lost good men that day.” Star pointed assertively at her planning chart. “Step 1. Write a letter that appeals to the heart by exposing the pain caused by cheating in the ~martials arts~ community.” This was represented by a pen, a radiant piece of paper, and a glowing heart.

“You’ve done this one,” Marco noted.

“Yes. Huge success. The comments on the article were very angry and sympathetic. It was unclear if they pitied Marco or the small child more but it doesn’t matter. People are feeling sad about this.

“Step 2. Find Burles Buttsmire—”

“I think it was Crushington,” Marco corrected.

“—Buttface Crushman and figure out what his deal is. Is he poor and needed the prize money? Does he have self-esteem issues and needed this win to feel good about himself? Does he have unresolved parental issues?” Here Star had drawn a muscly caricature of Burles with question marks all over it.

“You’re taking a real softball approach here, huh?” Janna said lethargically.

“Well you know what happens Janna is we get all caught up in our sense of justice and we forget about people being people. People are people darn it, and this guy probably wasn’t trying to be a jerk.”

Marco raised his hand and waited to be called on. “Why are you calling him names then?”

“I am also incredibly frustrated at him and I am allowed to deal with that in my own way. Okay? Okay.

“Step 3.” This one had an arrow connecting the letter from step 1 to a depiction of Burles crying. “Make him read the letter and feel bad feelings. Big bad guilt feelings. We’re going to crush this guy into emotional dust. He’s going to regret ever… having grown up in the unfortunate circumstances that led to his poor life choices.” Star punched her palm sort of aggressively.

Marco and Janna nodded along, and Star continued. “Step 4. Get an apology out of him. Like a nice one. A public one. With tears.” Here Star drew a podium with a microphone and another drawing of Burles crying.

“Wait why would he do that?” Marco interjected.

“Because of the crushing guilt from step 3, Marco. Are you paying attention?”

“But he won’t have any real reason to cooperate, right? He’d be throwing away his reputation. People don’t just turn around one-eighty because of a little guilt.”

Star’s posture slumped a bit. “They might.”

Marco shared a silent glance with Janna who shook her head.

Star challenged them, on the defense now, “So, what, we don’t do anything?”

Marco tried to salvage the situation. “I didn’t say that. We’ve just got to give him a good reason to come clean.”

“Let’s throw this referee under the bus,” Janna suggested bluntly.

Star scowled. “Janna that’s not a good way—"

“Why not? He sounds like a monster—"

Star and Marco both frowned a bit at the word.

“–right right right. My bad. He sounds like a _villain_. There’s a big difference between a guy who cheats to win and a guy who’s in a position of trust who allows people to cheat to win. He’s in a whole other league. So let’s get your muscle boy to confess by putting it all on the ref.”

Star turned to look at her plan board for a few moments of silent consideration, and then reluctantly conceded. She crossed out her 4th step and replaced it with “Ruin the Ref”.

She sighed, “Okay fine. You’re probably right. We’ll do it like this. Marco, you’ll come with me to talk to Burges. Janna, you’re on recon. Get us whatever you can about Burges and the ref whose name we still do not know.”

Marco happily accepted his post. “You got it boss.”

Janna smiled, “On it.”

“See you on the battlefield, soldiers. Dismissed.”

The three of them hung out and played video games for a while. After the sun went down, Janna climbed out the window to head home. “Got some stuff to do kids. I’m out.”

Star and Marco continued playing games into the evening. They were engaged in fierce mortal combat when Star asked Marco if he’d be sticking around for the night.

“Oh yes absolutely.” He thought for a second about it. “Has it been a while? I feel like it’s been a while.”

“It has,” Star grunted while concentrating on dominating Marco’s fighter with a devastating combo move.

She trounced him. 3-0. “Aw man. You’re too good at this one. I can’t keep up.”

“I am a force to be reckoned with. Don’t you forget it.”

“Okay hold on, I’ll just let my parents know I’m staying over. They wait up, you know?” Marco pulled out his phone and fired off a quick message to his mom. She sent her blessings.

Star turned off the game, then went out into the castle halls to get ready for bed and let her parents know Marco was staying over. She returned to find Marco had already changed into the emergency pajamas he kept in her dresser and was laying in her bed doing something on his phone. She changed into her night gown and let her hair down. She looked herself over in the mirror. Was that her?

She sat on the edge of her bed looking awfully tired, but apparently not enough to lay down. She was fidgeting with her hair a bit and it was pretty obvious she wanted to talk about something. Marco had been feeling Star maybe wasn’t doing so great lately, and he was worried he had been neglecting her. He sat up next to her and put his hand on hers. “How you doing buddy?”

“Oh dear sweet Marco.” She looked him in the eyes and knew she couldn’t hide it tonight. “To be honest… not so great. You uh… you want to hear about it?”

He nodded.

She looked down at his hand on hers and began tracing random shapes on the back of his hand with her finger. “I’ve just been thinking. And everything keeps reminding me. I’m not really that special. Like. Here you are. So cool. You’ve got this martial arts stuff. And you’re smart. Like real smart—"

“Aw, Star—"

“And Janna’s weird and clever and just pretty cool all around. Tom’s turning into a real social influencer—"

“Is he though?” Marco glanced at his phone which had yet another message from Tom that read, “u coming? 4 sure?”

Star whacked his hand. “Shush. Let me get all this out.” Star took a deep breath and continued. “I’m feeling kind of useless doing this stuff with the justice club. There are all these powerful old ladies with amazing ideas and so much energy running the show. I’m just there, just lending a hand where I can. I got beat up by a 5-year-old. My grades suck. I don’t even know if I want to be in school. And the proudest moment I’ve had in a long while is when I got an angry letter published in a local newspaper. A letter, Marco. Is this my future? Being some kind of… mundane… letter writer? What kind of life is that?

“But I don’t really even know what kind of life I want! Should I just be doing what my parents want? Be a diplomat for the Sovereignty of Mewni? Maybe I could do that for a while and figure out what I really want later? But I don’t want to just be given a position of power for nothing. ‘Diplomat’. Bleh. Like I want to spend all day traveling around and talking to stuffy politicians.

“I think what I want is to go somewhere on my own and be someone I can be proud of, but I have no idea how to do that. And I feel like everything I fought for back on Mewni – it’s not done – but I don’t have the power I need to fix it on my own anymore. Mewnearth is so big. Humans are so… troubled. And monsters certainly aren’t having an easy time of finding a place here. What did I do all that work for? The people here don’t even know. They don’t know who I am, and I don’t know who I am, and I’m… I’m kind of falling apart.” She was trying to keep it together, but her eyes were watery.

Marco held her hand and listened and waited for a good moment to say how wonderful she was. “You know you’re pretty great though, right?”

She scoffed. “I was pretty great when I could fix broken kingdoms and kick bad guy butts.”

“No, you’re great right now. You’re still fighting a good fight out there for something you believe in. Who even does that? Do you know anyone who does that?”

“Lots of people I bet. You do that. And those old ladies at the club.”

“And you. And you’re making a difference. Maybe it feels like you’re just lending a hand, but that’s one whole hand they didn’t have before, right? And I’m pretty sure you’ll be one of those cool old ladies one day. Just give it time. Keep doing what’s important. You’re doing great. Really. You are.”

Star squeezed Marco’s hand and let out a weak but sincerely grateful thank you.

“You still feel bad?”

“Yeah. But… I’m glad I can feel bad with you.” Star paused and looked him in the eyes, taking in all the love she saw there, then asked Marco for a hug. He was happy to oblige. They embraced in silence for a long time.

Star struggled with her thoughts while she held on to Marco, but eventually and reluctantly she gave breath to the words she had been hiding from. “I miss how it was.” The tears finally broke through.

Marco squeezed her tight and didn’t let go. He had always wanted to help people, to protect them, but he knew that he couldn’t protect Star from this. He felt powerless, but this was something Star had to figure out on her own. He’d be there to cheer her on while she put it all together. Hopefully that was enough.

[](https://www.cutercounter.com/)   



	3. The Pen

Star and Marco woke up together to a Monday morning. They both had classes at the tiny Echo Creek University. Marco was studying psychology and chemistry. He was thinking pre-med, but it was in the air. Star focused on international development. It seemed like a burgeoning field to her with all the extra nations that popped up after Mewnearth formed. Plus, it was one of the things she still felt good about – fixing broken social systems was kind of her thing… once.

Her grades weren’t amazing. But she kept hearing that grades weren’t everything. She tried not to worry about it and instead spent every chance she got speaking with her professors about her thoughts and her future. In fact, it was one of her professors who had pointed her at the Justice Warriors Club after Star had made an impassioned, unsolicited rebuke of academia, questioning why academics didn’t do more to actually fix the problems in the world. She was a precocious sophomore.

“Saw your letter Miss Butterfly,” said Professor Grayson when Star entered the classroom. Grayson was a sharply dressed 50-something woman with a distinct air of superiority, and even though Star had a lot of respect for the woman, she was still bothered by Grayson’s ego. “I’m impressed. I wish you’d put the same energy into your essays.”

Star frowned a bit. “Essays don’t fix problems.”

Professor Grayson smiled, “You’re not meant to be bound up in ivory towers I think, but it’s good to have you rousing the stuffy old minds that are. Enjoying the Justice Warriors?”

“I am, actually. So, thank you.”

“You know I used to do that sort of thing all the time.”

“Really? Why did you stop?”

Grayson shrugged, “Seemed to me there was a lot to be explored in the field of social change. Believe it or not, my essays do solve problems. My research helps guide the field towards better practices. I push the people on the front lines to be more inclusive, more delicate, more just.”

Star laughed, “I’ll ask if anyone at the club reads your papers.”

“You might be surprised. Alright Miss Butterfly have a seat. Class is starting.”

ECU was an old human building that did little to accommodate the diverse needs of the monsters who attended. The best the college could do was offer video lectures to the monsters that couldn’t fit in the doors. One more trouble to weigh on Star’s psyche. Could the school even be fixed for them? Probably not. Best to break it all down. Start over. She was very good at breaking things, so it was an appealing fantasy.

She tried to focus on her morning lectures but ended up thinking instead about her plan to bring Burges to justice. Janna and Marco made a good point, she thought. He had no reason to apologize without some way of saving his reputation. It just felt cruel to use him to get at the referee. She was hoping to be diplomatic with the ref too, but what could she do? Two of her best friends had stopped her before she got to that part of the plan, and they ruined the rest of it with their sound reasoning.

Over lunch, Marco and Star talked about the plan. Janna’s intel told them Burges went to the gym on Wednesday evenings, and they thought that would be the best place to speak to him – discreetly, after he was done and tired.

“Maybe we can appeal to his soft side. You think he likes burritos?” Marco asked.

“Marco not everything can be solved with burritos.”

“Star Butterfly you take that back.”

“Are we hanging out tonight?”

“No can do. I’m running a class.” Marco was teaching a couple of ~martial arts~ classes at his dojo two nights a week. It paid remarkably well. His cut of the fees was exactly $650 every week. Exhausted parents will apparently pay quite handsomely to keep their children occupied for an evening with activities that left the kids dead tired by the time they got home.

“Oh right. Ka-ra-te.” Star chopped the air. “That’s cool. I should probably get to work on my essays.”

But instead of working on her essays, Star ended up spending the evening wandering around Echo Creek and messing around on her phone. Pony Head was live-streaming an elaborate prank she was playing on her siblings. But her siblings were also watching and commenting in the live stream, so it didn’t seem like the stream scheme was going to work. But suddenly, a twist: Pony Head knew they knew all along and so had concocted an even more elaborate scheme than she had revealed in the stream. It was hard to follow, but it made Star smile to see Pony Head having a good time. She had leaned into being a viral video star pretty hard and was followed by millions of fans. “You done good, girl,” she said to herself.

Her wanderings brought her to a big old tree she recognized as one she used to climb back in Mewni. The tree had been noticeably displaced from its place near the castle, and now sat at least a mile away surrounded by human buildings. It seemed like a very long time since she had climbed something. She gave it a shot but only managed to get about halfway as high up as when she was a kid. The forbidden branches felt a bit too flimsy to hold her weight. She sighed at being hit in the face with another reminder that she wasn’t nearly as talented as she remembered. She leaned up against the trunk there, gazed at the weird landscape and the old perches of the tree that were now beyond her reach, and got lost in her head.

Dark, rumbling, destructive thoughts created a cacophony in her mind, but after a few minutes something inside her pushed back a little.

“Maybe Marco’s right,” she mumbled. “He thinks I’m doing good. Maybe I am going good.” But those words felt very empty. She couldn’t help but feel lost. She sighed, “Ugh. So if I’m good, why don’t I feel good? Don’t good people feel good?” Out of frustration, she knocked on her head with her fists. “Star. Butterfly. You. Are. Great. Stop being sad and just be great.”

She closed her eyes and imagined what being great looked like. Something like… standing up on something tall, looking triumphant with a bunch of people smiling and cheering around her. Maybe there would be a cape involved and a really cool dress and just the raddest of haircuts. She imagined all the terrible things standing in her way. The societal garbage. School. Burles. It felt like a lot.

She sat with that for a few minutes. It felt like a lot. Maybe it wasn’t even a lot. Maybe it was just too much. For her. She was too weak to carry it all. It was impossible for her. She was lost. She didn’t know where to start. And even if she did know where to start, it was still so much. But.

“Maybe it is a lot,” she admitted. “I’ve handled a lot before.”

Yeah, before, when she was great. She tried not to think about her past accomplishments. It felt crushing. But she was already crushed. Maybe it was okay to look back a bit.

“The Star Butterfly I used to know didn’t give up. She kept going. I can still do that. And maybe keeping on going was what made the old me great. Not princessing or magic or fighting or whatever.

“You know what. I want to be a badass old lady one day. Kick butt. Change the world. I won’t get there if I keep moping like this.” She let that thought hang in her head for a while, then she found some resolve, slapped her cheeks to get pumped up, and hopped down from the tree.

It was time to write some boring essays like a badass and take one step closer to becoming a person should could be proud of.

\---

To no one’s surprise, Burles was not emotionally crushed by Star’s letter and he did not find anything appealing about apologizing – even if he could get away with it by putting it all on the referee – and the mission was a huge failure.

To Star’s surprise, she didn’t feel nearly as defeated as she expected. In fact, she already had a new plan. “We’re going to prove he cheated, and we’re going to prove this referee is garbage, and we’re going to have them both removed from ~martial arts~ – forever.”

Both Janna and Marco gave a solid thumbs up. Burles had been pretty rude to the party and they were pretty much over being sympathetic.

“Janna, get me a floor plan of this guy’s house.”

Janna handed over a rolled up indigo document. “Way ahead of you.”

They sat down with the map and went over the plan.

“Marco, you’ll knock on the side door here and demand a rematch for the honor of the dojo. Be a real jerk about it.”

“I don’t think I can be a jerk, but I’ll try my best.”

“Good spirit. I like it. Janna we’re going in through the back. His bedroom is here, his closet is here, and I wager he keeps his thousand-sword uniform in there somewhere. We’ll photograph it in his house, match it with the photos of him wearing the uniform while accepting his belt at the tournament, and then we’ve got him. Also we’re stealing the uniform.”

Marco raised his hand and waited to be called. “Okay so a couple of those things sound pretty illegal.”

“Justice doesn’t wait for the law, Marco. Justice acts now and deals with the consequences later.”

“That’s some spine-tingling energy there. When you get arrested I’ll totally bail you out.”

“You are a very supportive boyfriend and I love you. Janna you down for some ~light criminal activity~ in the name of justice?”

Another thumbs up.

They set a date and time for the execution of the plan for the following week and then adjourned their dark meeting.

[](https://www.cutercounter.com/)   



	4. A Night In

Janna’s room had not been especially habitable for quite some time. The bed was folded up against the wall and her floor was covered in tidy piles of glowing knickknacks, scraps of metal, writhing masses in jars, and dirty laundry.

As she heaped her dirty clothes on the file, she noted that it was supposed to be laundry day yesterday. "Tomorrow," she promised herself. She had pressing matters to attend to tonight. As she did every night.

Her desk was a fixture that occupied nearly half of her room. Its gnarled wooden surface had just enough spare room for a single mug of coffee among hundreds of objects of her interest. Tonight, she had moved some of those objects to the floor so she could work on restoring a book she found with Marco in the cave under the retirement home.

She didn’t expect this to be an easy task. Conglomerated books tended to get folded in on themselves. The pages fused, bisecting each other. Something they came entirely out of order, were often unnumbered, and were always covered in words from languages unseen and unspoken for centuries. She flipped through the less tangled pages and figured this conglomeration contained at least three separate books.

She dug through the stuff on her desk and pulled out a craft knife and some clear tape. With careful, practiced motions, she sliced away the exposed area of every page she could reach, putting the scraps of paper into tidy piles. Two merged pages would need to be cut along their shared edge, and then each newly freed page carved out. This was easy in the beginning, but towards the center of the conglomeration there were often dozens of pages fused together this way, and some fragments ended up being little more than thin shreds of paper.

Along the way, she would puzzle over the symbols on the scraps. Some were clearly words. Other were pieces of diagrams – some of which looked akin to modern blueprints. And occasionally – what really kept her going – were spell fragments.

A few hours later, she was feeling fatigued by the work and had to call it a night. She figured this conglomeration would take a few more weeks to sort out at this rate.

She put a small glowing crystal on each pile of page fragments to weigh them down, then folded her bed down as best she could. The junk under her bed made a crunching sound under the weight of it. That was probably fine, she thought. Stuffed under her pillow was one of the fruits of her labor – a restored book from a dimension that had devoted academic pursuits to the arcane. Maybe. It could be a cookbook. She had no idea.

Janna had enrolled at the college to take linguistics and anthropology in hopes that the classes would make this process a bit easier, but deciphering a dead language is not a simple task even with professional guidance. Still, her professors were valuable resources. They were always eager for a challenge and she had managed to exploit their expertise to get started with a few words.

A thick spiral notebook accompanied the reconstituted tome. She flipped past dozens of pages of the notebook, each full her own handwritten dictionary entries for the words in the book, and then settled in to start looking for patterns. She worked in silence – occasionally scribbling a new word down or crossing another word out – until the night dragged her to sleep.

[](https://www.cutercounter.com/)   



	5. What's Mine

It was a Sunday and Marco’s parents were out of the house for the afternoon, leaving him with his little sister. He was relaxing in the living room with some shows and snacks when little Mariposa clambered up onto to the couch.

“Marco,” she said very seriously.

“MP. What’s up kiddo?”

“When is Meteora coming over?”

“Oh uh. I don’t think there’s a play date set up today. Let me check the calendar.” Marco set aside his bowl of snacks and headed for the kitchen. Mariposa dutifully followed along.

He looked over the family calendar and shook his head. “Sorry MP. You won’t be able to see her until next weekend.”

Mariposa got a downtrodden look on her face. “That sucks.”

“I hear ya. You bored? Want to play swords?”

“No it’s dorky hanging out with you.”

Marco was crushed. Being called dorky by a four-year-old was a harsh blow. “I thought I was the cool big brother.”

“No you’re a dork and I’m a dork if we hang out. That’s what Meteora says.”

That kid was still holding on to that grudge, huh? Marco conceded. “That’s fair. I’m not brave or foolish enough to question the mighty Meteora.” He returned to the couch and left Mariposa to her own devices. But despite the girl’s harsh words, she followed him and sat down on the couch to watch some shows with him, absent-mindedly stealing his snacks.

After a couple episodes of Samurai Robot Monster Punch: New Age New Fist, Marco noticed Mariposa was still sulking.

“You’re feeling pretty lonely, huh?”

Mariposa nodded.

His conscience was chiding him. This was his only day off this week. But it was his sworn duty to protect his little sister. And it was so noble a cause that he should have no problem sacrificing his time off – just this once, anyways. “Alright kiddo, let’s give Eclipsa a call.” Mariposa’s face lit up immediately.

The phone rang a few times before a little girl picked up and shouted Mariposa’s secret name into the receiver with excitement, which quickly turned to disgust at Marco’s friendly hello. Meteora demanded to speak with Mariposa, and Marco was promptly shooed out of the room so the girls could catch up. A few minutes later, Mariposa brought the phone to Marco and told him Eclipsa wanted to talk to him.

“Hey Eclipsa. How’s it going?”

“Oh you know, busy as always. It’s more than a full time job juggling a kingdom and a rambunctious child. How’s school? How’s Star? She never calls.”

“School’s good. Star is working hard.”

“Is everything alright, dear?”

“Yeah I’m good. Mariposa was feeling a bit lonely I think.”

Mariposa shook her head desperately and frowned, “Was not!”

“Oh she says no she wasn’t. My bad. Well I was going to ask if we could come over for a visit but if MP isn’t feeling even a little bit lonely I don’t know…”

Mariposa stamped her foot down. “No! Marco!”

“Oh she changed her mind.”

Eclipsa sounded relieved at the idea, “Oh Marco I’m sure Meteora would love to see her. Frankly she’s been rather moody lately. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was feeling lonely too, isn’t that right Meteora?”

Marco could here Meteora shouting, “Mom! Stop!”

Eclipsa told Marco it would be fine to pop by for a bit. Marco left a note for his parents and set out on foot for the Monster Temple with his sister. The bus dropped them off a short walk to the temple. When they arrived, Mariposa – who had barely been able to contain herself the entire trip over – busted open the front door and dashed inside.

She turned around and pointed at Marco dramatically. “You stay out of sight Marco I don’t want you ruining my reputation around here.”

Marco saluted his little sister dutifully. “You got it MP. I’ll keep my caustic dorkiness away from your business.”

Satisfied, Mariposa ran off to Meteora’s room with reckless abandon.

Eclipsa greeted Marco in the foyer and invited him in to one of the cozier rooms in the temple for some tea and cookies. He couldn’t say no – the chef here made the finest rainbow butter corn cookies he had ever tasted. What was the secret to their overwhelming power? One day he would get it out of her. One day he would take on the mantle of the cookie king.

“Thank you for coming over Marco. She was so moody. Climbing the walls, throwing books, chewing on the staff. She’s quite the handful these days.”

“Kindergarten next year though.”

“Thank goodness,” Meteora laughed. “Let’s catch up!”

Marco figured Eclipsa would be happy to talk about anything but work. The Monster Kingdom had been facing a lot of hardship lately. Lots of negative attention from the media. Undeserved, Marco thought, and a lot for the queen to handle. He figured he’d better do more telling than asking. “Uh let’s see… Star is still working with that activist group. I think they’re putting together a charity dinner and fundraiser for… something. Unity? I bet it’s unity.”

“That sounds delightful. And she didn’t invite me? I love fancy dinners.”

“I don’t think she invited anyone she knows. I’m not even supposed to go.”

“Oh? Why not?”

Marco shrugged. “I think she’s trying to not make a big deal about it.” He paused for a cookie. “Oh man these are so good.” Marco took a moment to appreciate the raw power of the confection, and then regained his train of thought. “But you know, I might sneak in anyways. She’s been working really hard on it, and I want to see how it turns out. Plus I figure I could stand to donate something to whatever she’s raising funds for.”

“You devil. And what are you up to these days, dear?”

“School. Work. I’m teaching some classes at the dojo now. We’ve got a youth session on Mondays, you know. You think Meteora would be interested?” Marco was hopeful he might find some way into the kid’s good books.

“I’d rather not encourage her in that direction, dear. I think she’s got enough fight in her already, thank you.”

Marco nodded. She was not wrong. “Oh, Star and Janna and me are working on an investigation into corrupt referees. We’re defending the integrity of ~martial arts~,” he said, chopping the air.

“Oh my that sounds exciting.”

Pinky extended, Marco sipped his tea. Was it exciting? They were breaking into some guy’s house. That’s pretty exciting, right? Slightly illegal? Pretty illegal, if he thought about it. “Yeah collecting evidence is surprisingly… thrilling. Complicated? Abnormal at least.”

“And your studies?”

“Keeping up those aces ma’am.”

“Good boy. Your family must be very proud.”

They chatted for a while until Eclipsa was called away for urgent business, which was usually how their conversations ended. She left Marco alone with a lukewarm pot of tea and an empty plate.

After a while of messing around on his phone he noticed the sun was getting low and went looking for Mariposa. The two kids had made a mess of the library, piling the books up into a fortress and a mountain. They were playing at being the rulers and defenders of the pile. They immediately attacked Marco as a hostile foreign power when he approached their defenses.

“Begone foul interloper!” Meteora bellowed in her deepest voice. “You stand before the mighty warriors Grobb and Bork, invincible defenders of the sovereign soil of Book Mountain Kingdom, and we shall not surrender our homeland to you – no matter the cost!” Meteora was very invested in the fantasy, whacking Marco with a broomstick as hard as a four-year-old can – which Marco had to admit was pretty hard. And that vocabulary. Sometimes it was easy to forget the two girls had lived so many more years than they looked, and then something like that came out and shattered the illusion.

Mariposa was a little less enthusiastic in her attack, grabbing Marco’s legs, half-heartedly growling and trying to topple him over. He played along and pretended to be defeated as dramatically as he could, collapsing to the ground.

“Oof. I am vanquished! Very well, Book Mountain Kingdom, this land shall be yours… for now.”

The girls let out a cheer while he performed his death rattle. Meteora gave him one more whack to be sure he was dead.

“Ow. Meteora please. Allow me my dignity in death and let me rest in peace here.”

“Grobb,” She said plainly and whacked him again.

“My apologies. Oh Lady Grobb, please grant me my eternal rest.”

She crossed her arms and huffed at him, then turned away to celebrate a triumphant victory with Mariposa.

“Good work out there, Lady Bork. Without your quick thinking we may never have felled the invader.”

“Well without your sword he probably would have just walked away. So good work to you too.”

They shook hands with a serious look that quickly broke into laughter.

When their victory ceremony was over, Marco dusted himself off and picked up Mariposa like a sack of potatoes. “Well girls time to say see ya later.”

“No! Marco! Just a little longer come on,” Mariposa pleaded with her brother desperately.

“No can do MP. Mom’s waiting up to read you a story before bed, and it’s getting late.”

Meteora scowled at Marco and called him a mean dork while continuing to hit him with her broomstick all the way to the front door. Marco managed to escape with his life and jokingly begged that the girls forgive his cruelty. They refused.

Mariposa was sulking again on the walk home. “You really are a mean dork, Marco.”

“Well MP don’t forget that this mean dork’s the one who took you over to see your friend on his only day off.”

She continued sulking in silence for a while before grumbling out a little, “Thanks I guess.”

When they crossed over from the cobblestone road of the Monster Temple grounds to the familiar human pavement of Echo Creek, an unfamiliar officer flagged Marco down for a routine ID check. After Marco was handed back his driver’s license and the siblings sent on their way, Mariposa turned back to look at the officer, her face all scrunched up with some kind of unpleasant emotion she hadn’t figured out yet. Out of ear’s reach, she growled at him. “Foul interloper.”

[](https://www.cutercounter.com/)   



	6. The Sword

“Y’alright there Star?” Janna called over her shoulder from her watch post at the corner of Burges's house.

Star was having trouble getting the window open. There was a screen in the way, and now that she was looking at it, the window might even be locked from the inside. She grumbled in frustration. “This window is very secure.” She rattled away at the screen for a few seconds before she threw her arms up in the air. “Who am I kidding? I don’t know how to break into a house.” She sighed. “Let’s call it. Maybe we can still save Marco from starting a street fight with this guy.”

Janna waved Star over to take her post, cracked her knuckles, and had the window open in less than a minute. “Ta da,” she dryly cheered, stuffing a coat hanger and a screwdriver back in her jacket.

Star looked at Janna with starry eyes. “Janna! That was awesome. You have to show me how you did that when we’re done.”

“Are you planning to start a life of crime?”

“Does it pay?”

“Word on the street is no.”

They climbed through the window – Janna fairly nimbly, Star less so. Janna offered her a hand when Star got stuck in an awkward position trying to crawl through the cramped opening.

Janna continued, “But that’s probably just propaganda spread by criminals to keep people off their turf.” Before she could finish her sentence, she was already snooping through drawers and flipping through whatever documents she could find. She photographed and pocketed items of interest to her, which ranged from socks to books to old photo ID.

“Okay. Let’s find this uniform. It’s like a burgundy… or like… maroon… It’s dark red.”

“Ooh. Very fashionable.”

“Oh.” Star sounded kind of disappointed. “It’s just right here in the closet.”

“Nice.”

“I figured this would be a little harder.” Star took a photo of the uniform up close and in the context of Burges’s room. On close inspection, it was indeed covered in thousands of nearly invisible pins. If anyone hit these with much force, it would do a lot of harm – just like it did to Marco’s limbs. Then she stuffed the uniform in her bag and motioned to Janna that it was time to leave. But Janna was mesmerized by something she spotted under the bed. She called Star over to take a look.

It was a small puddle of black slime. The drying edges of the slime branched up into crystalline tendrils that shone with a deep purple hue in the light. “What do you think that is?” Janna asked.

Star shrugged. “Moldy soup?”

Janna had the same look of arcane fascination on her face she got whenever she found a new book of curses in a musty old library or a mostly-working piece of machinery from another world. She took a picture of the slime and snapped off one of the tendrils as a sample before Star dragged her from the room.

Once they were back on the ground, Star realized the window was looking pretty violated. “Uh you can fix the window, right?”

Janna expertly closed the window, locked it with the coat hanger, and replaced the screen. “Good as new.” Almost. Close enough, anyways.

Star gave the sign to Marco – a pig-goat cry – and they rendezvoused at the taco stand to debrief.

Marco was very flustered and uneasy when they sat down.

Star tried to calm his nerves, “Relax Marco it’s fine. He’ll never know we were there.”

“Star you literally burgled a man while I… threatened him with violence in front of his home. I am having second, third, and fourth thoughts about this. You know what they’re saying? No. Nuh-uh. Bad idea.”

Janna joined in with Star. “Cool it dude. It’s done. There’s no evidence we were there. The most he’s got is a story about his martial arts rival showing up for a challenge, right? That’s perfectly normal.”

Marco had to admit that it was perfectly normal for ~martial artists~ to call each other out to defend their honor.

Janna continued, “Plus crimes are only illegal if you get caught, right?”

“That is not how crimes work.”

“Pretty sure it is dude, or I would be very criminal.”

“Okay this is not helping. Did you get the thing?”

Star patted her bag with pride. “We got it.”

“Okay good. So what’s next?”

Star’s demeanor shifted into planning mode. “The referee is next. If he’s been accepting bribes, we need to look at his records or find a conversation about it – bank statements, emails, texts, journals, whatever.”

Marco tensed up. “So more breaking into houses?”

“We’re going to be expert heisters by the end of this mission.” Star was feeling inspired by the image forming in her head. Dispensers of vigilante justice. Like superheroes. Caped superheroes. With badass haircuts.

Marco got up and asked Star to join him for a moment. He led her around the corner of the taco stand.

His voice was pleading for understanding. “I don’t think I can do this again. My guts. They are not doing good right now.”

Star’s face sunk. She thought Marco would be up for this. He was always so energetic about fighting for the greater good. So if he didn’t think this was a good idea. “You think this is… wrong.”

Marco nodded.

Star took a few seconds to think on that before putting the right words together. “Look you don’t have to help with the mission. You did a lot already, and I really appreciate it. And you’re not wrong for following your guts. But. I’m doing the right thing.”

Marco nodded again.

“You look disappointed.”

“No I’m just feeling… riled up. Kind of scared.”

Star had to admit to herself that she was feeling the same thing. It was terrifying breaking into Burges’s room, but it was important, and she couldn’t back down just because of a little fear.

She didn’t get why this wasn’t as important to Marco. It was his honor on the line, his ~martial arts~. She thought keeping him involved was good for him. But this was bigger than Marco. This was justice. And even if he couldn’t tag along, she couldn’t stop.

“I’m going to keep going with this. It’s important.”

“I know.”

Star jokingly punched him in the arm. “You’ll visit me in jail, right?”

Marco cracked a little smile. “Only if you get caught.”

Star invited Marco in for an embrace and a kiss. When he put his hands around her back, she felt him clutching on to her like she was slipping away. When he kissed her, she felt the unspoken words on his lips: I trust you. Eyes still closed, they touched their foreheads together. Star whispered thanks. “I love you.”

From around the other side of the taco stand, Janna shouted, “Gross!”

[](https://www.cutercounter.com/)   



	7. Too Late

“It is 3am Janna. Why is my phone ringing at 3am? Are you dying?” Star was groggy and not pleased.

“No. But this is important.”

“Can’t wait ‘til tomorrow? For lunch?” Star wondered if Janna actually slept. Signs point to no, she thought.

Janna was silent for a moment and then replied that yes it could probably wait.

“Thanks dude. G’night.”

Janna said good night and the call disconnected.

“Janna,” Star grumbled.

It was a Sunday, so they met for brunch at a Mewni cafe. The place claimed to serve Mewnearth fusion cuisine, but it was mostly traditional Mewni corn-based dishes with Earthen tomato ketchup on top. Star was fond of their eggs and pig-goat buttermilk corncakes.

“Hold the ketchup, though.”

“Of course, princess.”

Star shushed the waiter impatiently. “I keep telling you to stop calling me that.” Star had put a lot of effort into cultivating a new style that left her unrecognizable from her days as princess, but she had stupidly let her name slip when she was here once before, and now the whole staff knew who she was. It was not a great feeling, but the corncakes here were worth a little embarrassment.

Janna ordered something light and three cups of coffee.

“Like… at once?” asked the server, bewildered. “You know the refills are free, right?”

“It’s a three-coffee morning,” Janna said matter-of-factly, and shooed the waiter away.

Star yawned. She didn’t have an easy time getting back to sleep last night. “Okay so what’s the deal?”

Janna put her phone on the table with the screen turned to the photograph of the slime under Burges’s bed. “This.”

“Slime. Okay.”

Janna also pulled out a thick tome that was, as far as Star could tell, mostly composed of clear tape. She turned to a page that was written in unfamiliar characters. In the middle of the page was a sketch of a black blob with crystalline tendrils. “And this.”

“More slime. Go on.”

“I was hoping you might know some of these words. You traveled all over the multiverse.”

Star looked intently at the page but didn’t recognize anything about it. “Big nope on that one.” Star flipped the book up to see its cover, which was covered in indiscernible words around what looked like an unfamiliar constellation contained in a ring of runes. “What is this book?”

“Who knows. Found it in pile of amalgamated inter-dimensional junk, so it’s probably not from around here. Probably safe to assume it’s from another dimension. And it looks super old. But this is wild, right? Why would an ancient book from another dimension have a drawing of a contemporary slime from a sleaze ball’s bedroom?”

It was a little weird, Star had to admit. It was definitely not 3am phone call weird, though. Janna.

“Okay, but look at this,” Janna was very excited to keep going. She flipped to another page in the book. This one had a sketch of something more familiar to Star. It looked like a monument for a Magic well – one of the openings between dimensions before the Cleave. “I know you’ve seen this before.”

Star was a little surprised. She had never considered that other dimensions might have written books about the Magic. “So we’ve got a book, a slime, and a monument.” Star poked her index fingers together. “Put this together for me.”

Janna closed the book dramatically. “The slime has something to do with the Magic.”

Star’s eyes glazed over for a moment before she shook her head firmly. “Nope. Not biting.”

“Aw come on. Help me out here.”

“No! Listen, what do you want? Someone who can read books from other dimensions? Find someone else. I can only understand like four languages – poorly – and they were all from Mewni.”

“You don’t need to know the words. I’ve already got some of them. But you’ve fiddled with the inner workings of the Magic more than anyone alive right now. Maybe we can use all that hands-on knowledge to figure this stuff out. Like here, see.” Janna opened the book and flipped back and forth between the two pages. “There’s a lot of the same words here. I don’t know what they mean, but I think the book is saying there’s a connection. I’m thinking like an ingredient in a soup or something.”

A little knot formed in Star’s stomach when she thought about what Avid Occultist Janna might be planning. Star closed the book. “I don’t want to talk about this.”

Their order arrived, and Janna cleared her stuff off of the table. Star hoped she could think of something else to talk about, but Janna kept going.

“So you’re not curious about this? Not even a little? This could be something really big. We might even be able to find a way to go to the other dimensions again. See our friends?”

Janna wasn’t getting the message and every muscle in Star’s body was tensing up. She was struggling to keep from walking away when she realized she had never really told Janna how she felt about… all that. She looked Janna in the eye and spoke somberly. “Listen. You’ve got to understand something. The Magic was a blight on… everything. And I was a conduit for that. They gave all that power to a child, and I did bad things with it that I can never take back.” She looked down at her plate. “We all did. And I don’t like to talk about this. But you’re my friend and I trust you with this.” She squeezed her hand into a tight fist. “Despite all the… shame and guilt and… outrage, there’s still a part of me that aches to have that power back.” Her gaze returned to Janna. “I hate that part of me. I want to cut it from my body. But I can’t. So. Yes. I am curious. But I just… I don’t even want to think about…” She trailed off, unwilling to finish the thought.

“Oh dude. I didn’t know. I thought you would love this stuff.”

Star shook her head.

Janna shrugged. “Alright. It’s no big deal. I get it.”

“Thanks.”

Star ate a few lethargic forkfuls of corncake before she excused herself to the washroom.

She returned to the table a few minutes later, face washed, deep breaths taken, mirror stared down, and managed to strike up a pretty normal conversation with Janna about their studies. Stuffy professors and boring essays do suck, they concluded.

Star’s posture relaxed a bit after talking for a while about nothing in particular. “What are you up to after this?”

“Animal shelter. I love the laser-dogs. No one wants the older ones. It’s real sad, you know? They still need walks and attention.”

“Aw,” Star cooed. ”You walk the dogs?”

“Are you joking? No, I go to watch the volunteers get lasered in the face.”

Star snorted, “That sounds right.” She paused, feeling a little uncertain. “Can I tag along?”

Janna shrugged. “Sure.” Janna handed Star a pair of laser goggles. “Wear these. The radiation will literally cook your eyes, which sounds cool, but it is not.”

They spent the afternoon sitting on a bench across from the animal shelter, talking about whatever and enjoying the antics of the animals as they devastated the staff and volunteers there. Star thought the shelter really ought to bring in volunteers with a little more experience handling enchanted beasts. The humans were pretty lousy at it. She figured it’d be fun to start volunteering there. Just once a week. Just to walk the laser-dogs. They deserved a capable caretaker, and who better than a former conjurer of laser-pups.

That night, Star had trouble sleeping. She was staring at the canopy of her bed trying and failing to shut her mind off. She wanted to stop feeling lonely for her inter-dimensional friends, she wanted to stop remembering the exhilarating sensation of tearing space apart to open a gateway to another world, and she wanted to stop aching over the secrets in that book. But that ache didn’t go away, even after sleep took her.

[](https://www.cutercounter.com/)   


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi. It's me, the author. Since originally publishing this chapter, Daron Nefcy has officially removed laser powers from all post-Cleave puppies. Sadly my story must now be cancelled due to plot-critical canon inconsistencies. Thank you for reading.
> 
> \- [AR](https://aphantaray.tumblr.com)


	8. Scars

Star was on the battlefield again. It was chaotic. Unbearably loud. She was trying to stop everything that was happening. And she did. Everything froze. She could walk around the chaos, the combatants immobilized in time, silent. She tried to push weapons aside or drag the warriors away from certain doom, but nothing would move. Her desperation grew as she felt time returning at a snail’s pace. She slammed herself into the unyielding assailants over and over again to no avail. Shaking with rage, she drew her own sword, and she too became frozen in time. She looked down and found that she had readied a strike against a human warrior who was himself seconds from striking his monster enemy. And then she started moving like a train on rails. Inch by inch, she could only watch as all the swords and all the arrows on the battlefield pierced through their enemies’ armor and tore through their flesh. Drops of blood flowed like molasses, staining the ground and the silver of her blade, and suddenly the cacophonic thunder of battle returned at full force.

The dream was gone in an instant, but the feeling lingered. She woke to the sound of distant shouting. Sirens. Someone was barking commands through a megaphone. Powerful machines were rumbling along the ground. Her mother was knocking insistently and calling her.

“Star dear are you awake?”

“Yeah,” Star croaked at the door.

“May I come in? Please.”

Star did a mental inventory of herself and figured she was hardly prepared for a groggy early morning encounter with her mother, but it’s not like she could say no. “Yeah come in.”

Upon entering the room, the queen went straight for Star’s window and shut the curtains. “Star you’re staying home today.”

“Why? What’s going on?”

“Do not argue with me on this.”

Star didn’t like the urgency in her mother’s voice. “What’s the noise about?”

“There’s been an incident. The police are… taking care of it, but it doesn’t look like they’ll be finished any time soon.”

Star heard what sounded like echoey muffled popcorn popping, and more shouting. Popcorn? She threw the covers off and went to the window, pushing her mom and the curtains aside.

From the high vantage of her castle bedroom she could see chaos down in the nearby streets of Echo Creek. A large saurian monster was backed up against a building with his little arms raised as high in the air as he could muster. Star could barely make out the officers, guns drawn, cowering behind a dozen flashing squad cars. And behind the cars… was that… “A tank!? What’s going on out there?”

“I don’t know. I can only assume they’re trying to arrest that monster and are having trouble subduing it. It must have been acting violently for them to bring out such heavy weaponry.”

Star looked back at the scene. The monster wasn’t really being aggressive. He wasn’t rampaging or trying to run. He was just standing perfectly still looking directly at the officer who was shouting through the megaphone. But the officer kept shouting. The monster was clearly at his wits end. He started flailing his arms up and down and yelling back at the officer. Star couldn’t make out any of the words in their exchange, and she couldn’t make good sense of what she was seeing. He looked like he was surrendering. Why didn’t they just take him?

The monster gave up trying to reason with the officer. He turned and started to run. Popcorn again – which Star could now see was the sound of the officers firing their guns at the monster – and suddenly a bright flash exploded at the monster’s feet followed immediately by a thunderous crack that shook the windows of Butterfly Castle. A large plume of smoke drifted into the air, and when it had gone the monster was laying motionless on the ground with the officers circling cautiously, guns still drawn.

Star took in the scene for as long as her psyche could bear before she was dropped to the ground by the weight of it. Her mind was suddenly on fire – tense, electric, disgusting. Balanced on the pads of her feet she curled up in a tight ball, her chest crushed into her knees, her hands covering her ears so fiercely she felt her skull might crack.

Her mother knelt beside her and hugged her. She tried brushing the silent tears from her daughter’s cheeks, saying sweet words, kissing her baby’s forehead, but it was no use. Star had left. There was only noise.

Some time later, Star found she was in bed again. All the feeling in her mind, in her heart, it was all drained out. She was sad but the tears were gone. The window was shut, its curtains drawn again, and no sound came through. Maybe it had been a nightmare. Popcorn. Crack. Stillness. Star couldn’t turn the memory off.

When her mom came in to check on her, Star answered with a hollow voice that she was fine.

Her mother tried to soothe her. Sort of. She had a way of working a scornful tone into her words of comfort. “That’s the way it is sometimes. You have to understand that, Star.”

Star shook her head slightly. “It shouldn’t. I shouldn’t have to.”

“But you do.”

Star didn’t have anything else to say. She waited until her mother left, then rolled over and curled up in a ball. “This has to change. I have to change this.” A mantra she repeated to herself for some time before closing her eyes tight, clearing her mind, and throwing herself out of bed. After a shower and some deep breathing – interspersed with untangling the occasional knot in her throat – she was able to get dressed and go to her afternoon classes like everything was wrong.

She ran on autopilot for the rest of the day, opening her notebook but failing to write any notes down, ordering food but never eating it, ignoring calls and messages from both her mother and from Marco. As her classes wound down, she did her best to avoid the end of the day by sitting in the darkest corner of the college library until the sun set. The lights went out one by one and for a moment Star held hope that she might be forgotten there in the dark, but before the final light was shut, the book clerk found her and tapped her on the shoulder to leave.

On the front steps of the library, she stared out into the night sky. She had known both skies before the Cleave. They both had charm. The celestial canopy over Mewni was so colorful, its moons massive and shattered from the destructive force of whatever queens of generations past had misaligned their spells at the sky. And Earth’s sky was black and calm. Its stars were stable and visible every night – a constant guide in the dark, a companion to lonely humans – and its moon was so singular and so striking that gods were created in her name. And now, the Earthen moon and stars were regularly muddled by the ambience of Mewni’s ionosphere, while the brilliance of the Mewnian night sky was diffused and dulled by the vast emptiness of Earth’s galaxy. New constellations formed. Old ones became nearly invisible. And Star wondered how much that hurt. How many humans missed the moon’s dominance over the night? How many mewmans and monsters closed their curtains on a hazy, lifeless sky that once danced with a thousand colors?

She couldn’t go home. Not yet. She pulled out her phone and started thumbing through her contacts. Marco was dealing with too much of her lately. Janna wasn’t really good for this kind of thing. Pony Head or Buff Frog would just try to help, and she didn’t want to be helped. She eventually settled on the best number she could find.

“Hey Tom. Can I crash with you tonight? No I’m fine. Just tired. Don’t want to go home. Yeah. Okay. At the campus. Yeah. Thanks.”

A few minutes later, a pillar of fire erupted in the parking lot. When the flames subsided, the Lucitor family’s demonic carriage was waiting. Star got in and sat next to Tom, thanking him again. He replied that it was no problem. “Wouldn’t be a very good friend if I couldn’t give you a couch to crash on once in a while. Oh but you won’t have to use the couch. Obviously. Because of the guest rooms.”

The ground parted and a fiery chasm consumed the carriage. The coupe creaked and rocked as it bolted through the molten scenery of the Underworld. Star felt exhausted. She leaned on Tom’s shoulder. His shirt smelled so very like Tom. It conjured a memory of something comfortable and familiar, and for a moment she felt embarrassed that she remembered something so stupid so fondly. She clutched gingerly at Tom’s sleeve. “Can you tell me it’s going to be okay?”

“Uh…” Tom sounded a bit uneasy, but he managed to collect himself. “Sure! It’s going to be okay. Whatever it is.” He got stuck trying to figure out what to do with his hands. He made a few failed attempts at offering a comforting touch – first a hint of a hug, then a stutter towards a head pat, and for a second it looked like he was going in for a fist bump – but eventually he settled on just keeping his hands to himself. “Do you uh… need to talk or…”

“No,” Star replied in a soft, tired tone.

He shot her an awkward thumbs-up and a sincere-looking smile. “You got it.”

“Thanks.” Tom was exactly as awkward and good a friend as she needed right now.

At the castle, Tom showed Star to her room – where she spent the night in a mercifully unfamiliar bed, feeling for the first time in a long while that she could let go of everything important to her and just… rest.

[](https://www.cutercounter.com/)   



	9. A Real Job

It was entirely too early in the day and Tom was seated as a guest in a large boardroom. He was representing his family’s business – Core Energy Solutions – to renegotiate an energy contract with a multinational parts manufacturer. It was dry business and he hoped this would not be the peak of his day.

The table was otherwise seated with older human men who were visibly uncomfortable in the presence of a young, well-dressed half-demon. But that’s why he got sent to these things at all, he figured. That and an unspoken understanding that he was to use his powers to manipulate the situation to his family’s advantage. But that didn’t sit well with him.

The board was contesting the terms of the contract. Money meant so much to these people.

One board member went off, tearing into Tom and shaking the contract at him, “How can you conscionably ask for this much? Your expenses must be negligible, and the profit margin on your distribution rates must be unimaginable. We’ve supported your business from day one, invested heavily in your infrastructure – consider the loyalty we’ve shown you.”

Tom maintained a cool demeanor and a professional tone. “The rates we’re offering you are already in consideration of your loyalty. Your support hasn’t gone unnoticed. But Core Energy is growing. Political pressure is increasing. Choosing clients that benefit our reputation is very important. We were considering cancelling this contract outright because it has become one of our least profitable ventures, and your company does very little to boost our brand. But we appreciate everything you’ve given us and so we’re coming to the table with this very generous offer.”

The board rumbled a bit more. He heard whispers among them that his father would never have been so disrespectful. A real businessman, that one. Not like this pretty boy.

At length, Tom conceded to a small, temporary discount. They seemed to smirk and chuckle at him. Tom imagined they were satisfied thinking they had swindled this naïve youngster – who had actually been given permission to cut the offer in half if necessary. This client was essential, his father said before sending him off to the meeting. Give them anything they want. Seemed to Tom they just wanted to feel like they’d won.

They all shook hands and laughed like old friends after the deal had been struck. It was a façade that was a bit more pleasant than the dagger-laden stares he faced during the opening minutes of the meeting. After the modified agreement was signed, he placed Core Energy’s copy in an envelope and excused himself from their company.

When Tom was back in his demonic carriage, he let out a deep breath. He tossed aside his tie and jacket and undid the top button of his shirt. He felt like he could breathe again. He went over the moments of the meeting in his mind. Had he done it right this time? Reading their desires, weaving silvered words, swaying their will – it was all just a sixth sense to him. It wasn’t easy to turn it off – wasn’t even easy to notice it happening. It was Marco who pointed it out, and Tom would never have considered it a fault at all if it weren’t for the disgust he saw in Marco’s eyes.

He checked his phone to confirm that he had a few hours before his next engagement – a meeting with Mewnian leaders from all over the planet. Queen Moon wanted to talk strategy about negotiations with the humans over territorial rights – again – which just sounded super exciting. He wondered if Star had made it back to class. He was hoping to check in with her, but she wasn’t out of bed before he left. He directed the carriage home and it was swallowed up in flames. When it emerged in the Underworld, it had landed just a short ride to the Lucitor castle.

Tom peered out the window of the rattling carriage at the massive machinery that pumped heat out of the core. Thick conduits of electricity shot up into the ceiling of craggy rock that separated the Underworld from the surface of Mewnearth. Core Energy. The business and the kingdom had become so meshed together that he was often being called on to help with both. They’d made him the unofficial spokesman, sending him to media events, abusing his social status to promote their company, and grooming him to rule the Underworld when he got older. It was exhausting to be ‘on-brand’ so often. He missed being a mere bespoke bad-boy internet personality. He still got to do his make-up videos and mascara reviews, though, so it wasn’t entirely soul-draining work.

When he returned home, he poked his head in a few of the castle’s rooms on the way to his bed chamber. Star didn’t seem to be around. Shame. He wondered what was going on with her, but he knew better than to push Star too hard about her troubles. Sometimes a girl just needs space, he reminded himself. But he had to be honest that he was a little sad that the first time she’d called him in months was for a place to crash. She could just call to hang out once in a while, you know? Would that be so much to ask?

He sent Star a quick message saying that he hoped she was having a good day. Did that sound weird? He felt like he was on eggshells with her sometimes. The message went unread for a long while before she replied to say she was fine and thanks again for the bed – it was just what she needed. Tom was glad he could help her out, even though he probably wouldn’t hear from her again until she needed something more.

He supposed he should get some work done. He settled in at his computer to read over some notes for the next meeting and to post some hot takes on social media to keep his presence up. He found a trending news story and dropped his two cents in.

 _@TomOnFire: Monster kid shot by tanks are you kidding me? #justice4rawrler  
_ _💬 12_ _♥ 2431_

Wait. Did that say Echo Creek? He looked over the details of the news and was startled to find that the incident had occurred immediately outside Butterfly Castle. No wonder Star was so shook up.

While Tom was reading through the article for more details, Tom’s father barged into his room without knocking to ask about the meeting this morning.

Tom was used to this lack of respect for his personal space, but it still didn’t set a pleasant tone for the conversation. He responded that the meeting went well and that he got a good deal for the company.

“You swindler, you,” his father beamed.

“Ha ha. Yeah… Got ‘em good!” Tom was doing his best to fake enthusiasm.

“You ready for that thing with Queen Moon this afternoon?”

“I guess. Do we have like… talking points?”

“Oh no. No. No we don’t want to be involved in her plans at all. We’re only going at all because it looks bad if we don’t. But no, we absolutely can’t afford to take sides in any of this political business.”

“But she’s gonna ask for our help, right?”

“Yup. She always does. She’s been desperate lately to get some arcane power back under her control. But too bad. Hands tied! That’s all you need to tell her. All our resources are spread thin, no capacity to help with whatever she asks about. Got it?”

“You got it.”

“Excellent. I’m sure it’ll be as mundane as usual. Keep me posted if anything interesting comes up. Especially from the Prime Minister. Eclipsa’s hard to pin down, and very popular with the global monster community. We probably want to stay on her good side as much as possible when this all spills over. And uh… if there’s ~anything~ you can do to delay any decisions to move forward, you know, to keep the status quo…”

“Yeah. Got it.”

His father smiled and was about to leave before he remembered something. “Oh, I sent your little girlfriend on her way this morning while you were out.”

“Thanks. But we’re not dating. Still.”

“Darn. You got my hopes up there. You two used to get on so well. Thought you might have abandoned your bachelor lifestyle. And with a princess. What a fine person to have on our side.”

“Yeah I’m pretty sure she’s given up her title.”

“Ah ha, that explains the mundane attire. Well that’s a shame. Still, can’t change your blood! She’ll always be a Butterfly.”

“Yup.” Tom was done with this. “Well! Moon sent out some documents for the meeting, so I have some reading to do.”

“I’ll leave you to it, champ. Do us proud.”

His father left him alone to study, but Tom had already read the documents. The agenda was brief, the bullet points vague, but Tom was familiar with the queen’s machinations by now. Negotiate treaties with the humans, secure land rights, unify the kingdoms, share resources. She liked to show off templates for treaties and letters during these annual meetings. Tom’s impression was that this was all tolerated by the attendees, who primarily showed up to keep tabs on each other. A few of them seemed to be desperate for change, though. More so lately. Attendance got smaller every year. Tom tried not to ask why, but he knew some of these kingdoms had landed in parts of the human world that were disputed or war-torn, so it wasn’t much of a mystery.

It was for the best that he was already caught up on the reading. He had other preparations to attend to. The Lucitors were the only beings on the planet with the power to create transportation gates these days, and it wasn’t feasible for the more distant attendees to make the journey to the meeting by traditional means. It was the least the Lucitors could do to help move people around, Moon had insisted, unconcerned with the cost in souls for opening so many gates. Tom thought it was kind of shameful for a whole kingdom to be reduced to a taxi service at another queen’s demand. But hey, not his call.

He made his way to a large chamber near the top of the castle that had been repurposed as a gate hub at Moon’s request. After opening up the gate to Butterfly Castle, he called up each of the invitees to confirm they would be attending, and after getting confirmation he would open a gate for them that would remain stable for the duration of the meeting so they could return at a moment’s notice if need be. It was taxing work that took hours to set up, and it left his powers diminished for a few days, but it fell on him to do it since only he and his mother were authorized to open gates in such sensitive locations. The lower demons weren’t trustworthy and were unreliable in their channeling, and his mother had to keep her strength up ‘just in case’.

Once the chamber was bright with stable, flaming gates, he left a servant in charge of guiding the attendees after him when they eventually entered the chamber at their leisure, then made his way through the gate to the Butterfly Castle.

The gate opened into the main foyer of the castle. Tom had always found it a little disorienting to travel between the dark reds of the Lucitor halls directly into the bright blues of Butterfly Castle’s masonry. The sensation was nostalgic in a way he didn’t want to deal with.

He was fairly early, so the only greeting he got was from the royal guards at the main door. He gave them a nod as he headed out through the massive doors onto the street to kill some time. He figured he would take a look at the scene of that tank attack while he waited. Maybe get a picture for his feed. Was that gauche? It might be gauche.

He had expected to find a lot of damage to the area, but there only seemed to be a small chunk of pavement that had been shattered in the exchange. There was no police tape, no indication of a crime scene, nothing to signal that anything official had happened here. The divot was just sectioned off with pylons with all the ceremony of a pothole. He snapped a photo, not sure what he was planning to do with it.

The article he read suggested that the monster had done some damage to a nearby building, so he wandered around in search of that. At length, he found a fancy clothing store with a boarded up shattered window and a downed awning. Saurians were pretty large, though. He figured this kind of damage could easily be caused by a little stumble or a wayward tail swing while meandering down the street. He took a shot for his feed.

 _@TomOnFire: Can’t believe it. I’ve caused more damage in my sleep. ]·:-( pix.it/oI43z #justice4rawrler  
_ _💬 27_ _♥ 1483_

The store had some pretty nice suits and shirts in it. The sales associate was a charming young man who seemed more than a little intimidated by Tom’s menacing appearance but was nonetheless very cheerful. He fitted Tom for an outfit that was a stylish upgrade from his business suit – something with a little more panache. In exchange, Tom exhausted some of his power to restore the shop’s broken window and awning. He even put an iridescent sheen on the glass to give the store a little more street appeal.

The effort took a lot more out of him than he expected, but he tried to act cool. He shot a pair of finger guns at the tailor on the way out the door. “Thanks sweetheart. Keep the change.” Then before heading back to the meeting, he took a moment to pose for a quick storefront selfie. He posted it on his feed, complimenting the shop’s work and showing off his good deed.

He returned to the castle’s foyer to poke his head through the gate to Lucitor Castle and toss his old suit to the servant there. “Has everyone arrived?” The servant nodded, and Tom meandered his way up to the boardroom.

The attendees were engaged in light conversation with each other when he entered, and they paid little attention as he made his way to an empty seat. Before he could sit down, though, Moon spotted him. A look of disappointment briefly disrupted her diplomatic smile, but it quickly returned.

“Tom! Good to see you. Your father couldn’t make it again?”

Tom adopted as polite and regal a manner as he could muster. “Queen Moon, a pleasure. Sadly, our king is unable to attend today, but he sent me in confidence along with his regrets.”

“Please Tom, you can call me Moon; we’re practically family.”

“With all due respect, I try not to be familiar with my family while on official business.”

“That’s very professional of you.”

“I try.”

“Well, we’re all here now, so I’ll let you find a seat. Oh, and thank you for taking care of the transportation.”

“Not at all.”

Tom settled in his chair and looked over the guests. Eclipsa waved cheerfully when they made eye contact. Yes, hi Eclipsa, he waved back. She was accompanied by a few monsters from the Monster Kingdom’s parliament. Moon had failed to set up large enough chairs for a few of them, so they were forced to stand. He noted a few other familiar faces at the table – the representatives of the Spiderbite, Pony Head, and Pigeon kingdoms. Ludo was there too for some reason. Did he have a kingdom? Tom thought he was just living in a Mewnian neighborhood around Echo Creek these days. Actually, when Tom thought about it, he wasn’t even on the list of attendees. Did he just… wander in? The other leaders there were less familiar. Moon had reached out to distant Mewnian kingdoms to find allies – some of which hailed from the other side of the old world.

Moon welcomed everyone and thanked them for attending, then her cheerful demeanor quickly turned grim. The lights dimmed. A video went up on the wall behind her. It showed – in remarkably clear detail – the local police attacking a large, saurian youth a couple hundred feet from the castle.

“You may have heard. Yesterday, one of the Monster Kingdom’s youths was… apprehended by the human police force. Details are unclear, but it seems likely that he was killed. This gives credence to what we have long hoped were just rumors of monsters being treated unjustly by human authorities.”

Eclipsa interrupted Moon sharply, “We have been telling you about these abuses for years now. Violence, bigotry, disappearances.”

“Well we see the gravity of it very clearly now.”

“Yes. Clearly. Shame it took so long. Shame we lost so much.”

“May I continue?”

Eclipsa was poised for a verbal assault on Moon, leaning forward in her chair, both hands firmly on the table, but she must have thought better of it. She relaxed her posture and nodded for Moon to continue.

The queen carried on, “It’s not just monsters who are being treated improperly. Mewmans as well. In fact, all people from Mewni are denied their dignity by the humans. It seems most of these people still think of this as their Earth, as a place for humans first, and not as a place born of two worlds. They don’t understand that they are just as much invading our space, our freedom, our way of life.”

Ludo – whose head barely made it over the edge of the table while seated – stood up on his chair and started in on Moon. “Why don’t you just… you know?” Ludo gestured with his hands like he was shooting fireballs at distant targets. “Blow it all up! Get rid of them!”

“Ludo—”

“—King! King Ludo!”

“King Ludo. We don’t have anything to blow them up with.”

Ludo let out a sharp “Ha!” Then continued, “Come on, Moon. You? You always have something, don’t you?”

Moon sighed. “Okay. Yes. We do. In truth, we have been slowly amassing human armaments for self-defense. But it’s not in our best interests to start a conflict.”

Tom was a little shocked to hear that. The Butterfly Kingdom was renowned on Mewni for its military, but he still couldn’t imagine its soldiers marching around in fatigues with guns. He wondered if Star knew about her mother’s royal agenda.

Ludo went on, “They started it! Let’s just get rid of them all if they’re being such weenies about everything. We just want to live in peace, right? If they can’t see that, then that’s their problem, isn’t it? Time for them to grow up or blow up.” Ludo nudged the king next to him and quietly bragged, “I thought of that. Pretty clever, right?”

Moon shook her head. “I’ve considered fighting back. We simply can’t. First of all, there are so many more humans who have so much more powerful technology than we do that it wouldn’t be possible to ‘get rid of them’. Second of all, we can’t manufacture advanced weapons with our technology, so we need a human supplier if we ever intend to fight humans. Third of all, we don’t want to make enemies out of these people. They have a lot to offer.

“Instead, we need to be forming alliances. The Butterfly Kingdom has been in talks with representatives from the American government. They are prepared to provide a political and military shelter for us internationally if we can be valuable to them. They want to normalize our borders, provide special citizenship for our people with the right to work, and create open trade between our territories.”

Eclipsa again interrupted with a sharp tone. “That’s funny the way you put that, because when we speak with the Americans they want to confine us to tiny, barren parcels of our own land, segregate us from their people, and have unfettered access to our natural resources and labor. And in return they promise to protect us from ‘international threats’ when the biggest threats we’ve faced since merging with their world have been from the Americans themselves.”

“Eclipsa please. Many of our people are not on this continent, and threats from the less civil human nations are very real, pressing, and dangerous. Since last year’s meeting, three Mewnian kingdoms from across the ocean have been lost to human interests. We can’t defend Mewnian lands when we are so weak and so geographically and politically divided.”

Moon put on a more imposing tone as she addressed the entire room, “Leaders of Mewni, we cannot live like this for much longer. Alone. Scattered. Hated. The Butterfly Kingdom has nearly negotiated a treaty with the American government. Both parties want to fold as much of Mewni’s territory and population into the agreement as possible, and the Americans refuse to move forward if the Butterfly Kingdom cannot demonstrate an alliance with at least a few prominent Mewnian lands. They want us to be as one, with one government, one people.

“Once again, I am coming to you to propose that we unify all of our kingdoms, lands, and peoples under one banner – the Sovereignty of Mewni. If we can do this, the Americans have promised to defend our territory and our people, no matter how distant or small the claim may be. If we could become a nation recognized by the humans, we would have a chance to move forward and find a satisfying place in this world – a place where we can all feel safe, and where we can all share in the benefits of the resources and technology Mewnearth has to offer. I want to see every person on this planet living at peace. This is the way forward. Please, will you join me in pursuing this vision?”

Tom sensed something powerful in Moon’s final words. Something knocked at him. He felt himself nodding along as she spoke, and he felt his mind was very clear. He had no concerns, no questions.

Moon sat down and yielded the floor for open discussion. Many of the leaders there were happy to tell tales about the difficulties they faced, so isolated from the power of the greater Mewnian kingdoms. These smaller kingdoms were happily on board with rallying under Moon’s Sovereignty.

Eclipsa had reservations. She didn’t believe that the humans would take them seriously. “They don’t even see us as people worthy of basic civil rights,” she insisted, “How could they enter a treaty with us?” A few other leaders agreed that the humane treatment of Mewnian peoples must be enshrined in law before signing a treaty.

Tom remembered that his father had asked him to ensure nothing moved forward today, and he saw an opening here. After all, people so desperately hate to lose. “If Prime Minister Eclipsa is correct, then it sounds like the Americans intend to reorganize Mewnian territories. That certainly means some Mewnians will be dispossessed of their land. So, whose lands would be given up to the Americans? Even if the Lucitor Kingdom were on board with your coalition, we couldn’t give up territory in the Underworld. We’ve lived and ruled there for countless generations.”

The leaders at the table nodded in agreement, and the conversation turned to challenging Moon to conjure up a fair system for determining who would be worthy of keeping their land. Everyone had their own idea of why their land should be more valuable than the others, so the discussion didn’t progress much beyond ‘a coalition sounds nice but in practice it would be too messy for me personally’. Tom was pretty sure the meeting would eventually have dissolved into this sort of bickering anyways, but now he could take credit and get some praise from his father, which was always nice.

That said, Tom knew Moon had made some good points. Even the Lucitors couldn’t fight against a concerted effort by the humans to take their land. It was their good fortune that their land happened to be violently inhospitable for humans and entirely unsuitable for military engagements. But still. If nothing else, humans were determined and resourceful. One day they might cook up some way to get down there. And then?

After the meeting had wrapped up and the attendees were heading home, Moon was speaking with a small group of leaders who were swayed by her ideas and wanted to join her coalition. She happily had them sign some formal agreements before they went on their way.

At length, Moon and Eclipsa shared a stiff goodbye. They seemed to be leaving many things unsaid. After Eclipsa left, Tom and the queen were alone in the room.

“You wouldn’t have to give up anything, Tom, you know that.”

“Queen Moon, I haven’t been around long, but I know that the Butterfly Kingdom has a history of being very… opportunistic and exploitative with its alliances. I hope you can understand why we may be a bit reluctant to get on board with your plans. We are happy to be your friends, even your allies, but not your subjects.”

Moon sighed. “Well maybe next year we’ll win you over. Hopefully conflict with the humans doesn’t spill over before then.”

Tom nodded. “On less official business, how’s Star these days?”

“Oh, I think she’s fine. Stressed maybe. I’m not sure this college stuff is a good fit for her. She seemed much happier when she was more involved in the kingdom’s affairs.”

“Have you seen her today?”

“She came home very late this morning looking a complete mess. She never called. Like I needed more to worry about today than the political demise of Mewni.”

Tom shrugged. “Kids, right?” He figured Star hadn’t told her mother the specifics about where she had been, and probably for her own reasons. “Well I hope she’s doing well. Tell her I said hi.”

“I will. Thanks again for your help with the meeting. Every kingdom deserves so dedicated an heir.”

Tom gave a tired wave to the guards at the Butterfly Castle’s main entrance before heading through the gate back home. He confirmed with his servant that everyone had made their way back, and then put out each flaming gate in the chamber until the room returned to its natural twilight darkness. Then Tom made his way back to his bed chamber to write a report on the meeting for his father.

He also drafted – but never sent – an email to Star.

_Hey Star,_

_Your mom has some otherworldly inspiration when she gives speeches, wow. I felt tingles down my spine. Did you know she’s putting together the makings of a modern army and is maybe trying to sell your land out from under you? Seems kind of strange!_

_K bye,_

_Tom_

[](https://www.cutercounter.com/)   



	10. Recharging

The morning after crashing at Tom’s place, Star was roused by the sound of the Lucitors’ cleaning staff working in the hallway outside the guest room. It was impossible to tell the time of day here. The window only let in the perpetual twilight of brimstone and lava. Her phone wouldn’t power on, so she had probably missed her morning alarm and her morning classes. Two days in a row now. Not good. She needed a respectable degree to be taken seriously in human culture, so this absolutely couldn’t become a habit, no matter how rough she was feeling. Plus, what could she even say to justify this? “I was sick because I saw someone probably get killed for no reason”? “Except maybe I was the reason, if you think about it”? “So I was trying really hard not to think about it”?

She glared at herself in the mirror while she put on yesterday’s clothes and tidied up her bedhead as best she could, then went out looking for Tom or his family. She checked Tom’s room and a few common spaces, but she couldn’t find anyone hanging around, so she made her way to the kitchen to ask the staff if they knew who she could talk to about getting back to Echo Creek – and maybe for a sandwich or something.

The halls of Castle Lucitor hadn’t changed much – the classical dark-red-and-gold demon-chic that colored everything from the floor to the ceiling was complimented by the fiery glow outside the tall castle windows – but through the glass Star could see the spread of dull grey human-industrial architecture blocking out the natural beauty of the Underworld’s landscape. She felt nostalgia for the fun she had here when she was younger, playing ‘the floor is lava’ with Tom in fields of actual lava, enjoying demonic cuisine, trying not to ask too many questions about the screams of the tortured souls.

The kitchen staff greeted Star with familiar cheer, insisted on preparing a small meal for her “in no time at all”, then had a servant take her to Tom’s father, Dave.

He was elated. “Star! What are you doing here? Not that it isn’t good to see you. You should visit more often, really.”

She explained that she needed a place to sleep last night and Tom was kind enough to pick her up.

“We raised a real gentleman. I’m so proud of him. Are you alright?”

“Yeah. But I’m late for class. I think. What time is it?”

Dave confirmed that it was late morning back in Echo Creek, and seeing Star was in a rush, he summoned the family’s demon carriage and sent her on her way.

Star asked the driver to drop her off at Butterfly Castle. Rather than spend too much time tracking her mother down in the huge structure, she figured it would be faster to plug her phone in and give her mom a call.

“Star! Where are you? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Yes, I’m actually fine. I’m in my room. My phone died. I crashed at a friend’s place last night and just got home. No mom I’m really fine you don’t need to come up.” But her mother had already hung up, and seconds later she burst Star’s door open and forced a hug on her. “Yes hi mom.”

“You need to answer your phone. I was worried sick. I couldn’t sleep at all last night.” Star could see the weariness in her mother’s face.

“Sorry. Listen I can’t stay long I have to get to class. I just wanted to let you know I’m okay.”

“Let me take you to school,” she insisted, “I’ll get the coach ready.”

Star wasn’t super keen on being escorted around town, but it was clearly important to her mother, so she agreed to the offer – even though she knew the price would be listening to a long, prescriptive lecture.

On the ride over, Star tried to defend herself against her mother’s admonishments. “I just needed some time to myself. Don’t you ever get that?”

“Well let me know the next time you ‘need some time to yourself’. You’re going to kill me with worry if you do that again. I’ll be in an important meeting this afternoon, but if you need anything, call.”

“Sure.” Star shifted her attention out the window, watching the scenery flip back and forth between the peasant mewman architecture of the Butterfly Kingdom and the suburban human architecture of Echo Creek. Her mother felt like such a burden sometimes. Why should she have to be responsible for her mother’s worries on top of her own?

She had been wondering lately if moving out would be a good idea. She didn’t have a job, though, which seemed to be an important prerequisite. And she wasn’t even sure she was allowed to have a job in Echo Creek with the state of things. She hadn’t yet seen any mewmans working in human shops. The law was kind of unclear. And as appealing as it was to pay rent in heaps of corn, she couldn’t really live on a mewman’s salary. No, she really wanted to live in an honest-to-goodness dollars-for-rent human apartment – in no small part because living in a mewman place would be super awkward, being ‘the princess’ and all. Wasn’t Janna living on her own somehow? Maybe she had some advice.

Star said her goodbyes and good lucks to her mom, then made her way to her afternoon classes. She felt a bit less morose than the previous day. She opened her notes today, turned past the scribbles and nonsense from yesterday’s fugue, and managed to get some useful points down about the positive and negative implications of outsider intervention during food emergencies.

She huddled near electrical outlets during her lectures to finish charging her phone. While waiting between her professors’ salient points, she sent off a reply to Tom’s message that her day was not yet a disaster, and thanks for putting her up last night. Then she messaged Marco to ask if they could grab a coffee before they went home for the day.

 _Abs4Days: coffee sounds great._ _♥_

_StarCap: you good with the corn and bean_

_Abs4Days: best corn coffee in town._

_Abs4Days: also the worst and only._

The afternoon disappeared quickly, and Star was relieved to see Marco. They greeted each other cheerfully before sitting down at a counter beside the shop’s window. Star leaned over to give Marco a little kiss and to tell him it was good to see him.

The Corn and Bean was located in a Mewnian monster ghetto. Buff Frog had introduced her to it, beaming about the cuisine. The building was well-suited to patrons of all shapes, sizes, and appetites. Star liked the place for the chaotic ambience, but also because she felt a bit more unknown here.

Over coffee, she told Marco about the incident with the police.

Marco was shocked. “They shot an explosive at him!? Geeze. Just a flashbang? or like, a real grenade?”

“I don’t know. It was super flashy and loud, so maybe the first one? He wasn’t… moving… after, if that narrows it down.” Star slowly swirled her corn coffee around in the cup. “You people have way too many kinds of thing for exploding things.” Everything Star knew about the human military came from history books that didn’t really cover the details, or vague explanations of military action in the news. She knew they had weapons that were powerful enough to kill more people in a single blow than had ever lived in the entire history of Mewni. How did the people here trust so many people with so much destructive power? “Tanks are supposed to be in big military battles, right? But I swear it looked like just the police down there. I thought they only had those flashing cars.”

“No, they have pretty heavy vehicles too. A tank wouldn’t surprise me. The military gets new stuff and they just sell the old stuff to whoever.” Marco’s grumbled at the thought. “Some police chief must have had a fantasy about fighting giant monster criminals one day. Kudos for the foresight, I guess.”

Star leaned back in her chair and took a deep breath. She thought about the scene. About the monster’s compliant behavior. About the officers’ anxiety and aggression. “You think he was really a criminal?”

“Geeze I hope so. That’s a lot of carnage for a false arrest.”

“Does someone like… check on this stuff? To make sure they’re not… just… hurting people?”

Marco shook his head. “I think there’s supposed to be some kind of process for handling weird incidents, but the only time I’ve ever seen this kind of thing get any action is when it explodes all over the news. You remember that case with that homeless lady who died in her prison cell last year? Took months for the facts to get out and trending, but after it got enough attention the officers involved got reprimanded.”

“Reprimanded,” Star echoed in disbelief. “Not sentenced to jail time? Or fired? Or even suspended?”

“Yeah. I know. It’s something, anyway. ‘This shouldn’t have happened’ is better than ‘oh well’, right?”

Star stared at her cup in silence. It was cold by now, but she didn’t really come here for the corn coffee. Marco was correct – it was the worst in town. “What are you up to tonight?”

“Cooking dinner with my mom, hanging out with little MP, then a big psych assignment to crunch through.”

Star’s whole body sunk a bit when she realized she’d have to go home. Alone. Soon. But before she could say anything, Marco corrected himself.

“Oh wait, you know what? I’m an idiot. I forgot my schedule is actually totally open tonight. Want to hit up the arcade? I gotta pay you back for that butt whooping the other night.”

Star scoffed with a smile, “Good luck.”

They settled their tab, Marco sent a few discrete messages on his phone, and they made their way out onto the street. On their way out, Marco cooed at his dragoncycle Nachos. She was parked just outside the cafe. “We’ll be back later, okay? Just hang out here until then.”

Star took Marco’s hand and squeezed it as they walked.

“Are you looking forward to Tom’s shindig?” she asked.

Marco rolled his eyes a bit, “Oh, is that soon. I almost forgot. Good thing Tom has been sending me like ten reminders a day.”

“Aw that’s adorable. You know he never gets to hang out with his friends anymore, and you know you’re his best friend.”

“He could be a little less weird about it.”

“Be nice to him. He’s a real sweetheart, and he’s got a lot on his plate these days.” Star thought for a moment that it was maybe a little selfish to call him last night out of nowhere.

“Come on, how hard can it be to be Tom Lucitor, heir to the Lucitor corporate empire? Judging from his feed, he’s just hanging around looking pretty and taking selfies all day.”

Star shrugged. “I dunno, it’s probably harder than it looks. He’s doing a bunch of stuff for his dad’s business, right? it’s basically a real job.”

“So close to a real job.”

“Marco. I wouldn’t call swinging your arms around and yelling two nights a week a real job either, but you get away with it somehow.”

Marco puffed out his chest. “That is not a job, it’s a passion.”

At the arcade, they picked up some snacks and beverages and started making their way through all the cabinets. The loser got to pick the next game – and Marco got to pick every game.

“Star. Please. You’re crushing my soul here.”

“Well you better get good then, scrub.”

“I am good! You’re just a force of unbridled fury today.”

“Aw. Thanks for noticing. Sweet talker. Alright, let’s play something where I don’t have to whoop you.”

They eventually settled on the co-operative _Robodemon Slayer_ game. They bumped fists to begin, and then effortlessly plowed their way through wave after wave, level after level of intense button-mashing combat. When they finally tore apart the final form of the Supreme Robodemon Godking, they cheered and sang, “Team Starco!”

The afternoon turned into evening, so they ordered some burgers and fries, then sat down to eat and listen to the cheerful bleeps, bloops, and jingles that echoed throughout the arcade hall. The floor had been nearly empty of patrons all afternoon, though.

Marco lamented, “You know I’ve been coming here since I was a little kid and it’s never been this dead. Wonder how long this place can survive like this.”

“It’d be sad if it closed. I’d never get to destroy you in public again.”

“Oh, yes. What a shame.”

“Maybe they could turn it into a museum. You could be the curator, teach people about how old-timey gamers played if they enjoyed losing.”

“You know I’m kind of hoping to develop more expertise in doctoring than losing games, but I’ll keep it in mind as a Plan B.”

Star smiled, “Think of all the extra lives you could save, though.”

“Har har.”

Star felt like she couldn’t stop grinning. She really needed this. She’d been feeling like maybe Marco was getting really sick of her being such a mess lately. But yeah obviously that’s not true. That’s not how Marco is. She scolded her brain for feeling so wrongly.

She put a jokingly serious face on and folded her hands in front of her on the table. “Marco Diaz. I have something very important to say to you.”

Marco mimicked her serious posture. “Yes, Star Butterfly.”

“You are very nice and I love you.”

“Hm. Yes. That is very serious.”

“I’m glad you understand the gravity of the situation.”

“Oh yes it’s quite dire. We’ll have to take action to address this immediately.”

They shared a kiss and a laugh before packing up and heading out into the street. The light had left the sky, and Nachos was still parked at the Cork and Bean, so they started the trek over.

While they were walking, Star stretched up to kiss Marco on the cheek, then took him by the hand again. “Thanks for making some time for me tonight.”

“What are you talking about? I didn’t have anything else to do.”

Star punched him in the arm, “Don’t lie. I really appreciate it. And the only reason I’m not inviting you over tonight is because you have homework to do.”

“Yeah okay, you got me. Shame though.” Marco squeezed her hand and spoke in a softer tone, “I’d love to spend the rest of the night with you.”

His words got her a little flustered. She tried to reply with a suave, “Same here,” but it came out so awkwardly that she had to cough to distract herself from it. “But! A proper education comes first!”

“Yes ma’am.”

“How about you come over for dinner with my family sometime this week? I think my dad’s planning another Bogbeast expedition. I’m sure he’d love to rope you in. And maybe you can stay after dinner,” she squeezed his hand back, “for whatever.”

“That sounds nice. I mean not just the whatever. Which sounds very nice. But seeing your family would be fun. I feel like I haven’t been subjected to a wrestling match with River in a while. It would be a shame if I fully recovered from the trauma. You know, I’ve been practicing my grapples. I think I might stand a chance next time we go at it.”

Star laughed, “You might. He’s been getting a bit soft lately since mom’s making him actually… you know… manage the kingdom. I think she finally gets it that I’m not going to be stepping up.”

“Hard to imagine River managing anything more complicated than a dinner table.”

“Hey, be nice. He’s got a lot of charm, he just never gets a chance to put it to good use. It’ll be good for him to handle some diplomacy stuff. I think he’s doing this Bogbeast expedition with Echo Creek’s city council or something. Trust-building exercise, I guess?”

“That doesn’t sound dangerous at all.”

“They’ll be fine.”

As they passed from Echo Creek’s paved streets to Mewni’s dirt roads, the light on the street dropped to near-darkness. The occasional window had enough lamplight pouring through to illuminate the road, but otherwise all they had to go by was the dull ambience of the sky and the faint light of the crescent moons.

Star wasn’t super pumped about wandering around Mewni’s streets at night. Even the neighborhoods under the guard of the Butterfly Kingdom weren’t especially welcoming after the sun set. But she figured that she and Marco could totally deal with whatever lurked in the shadows. Probably. And he seemed pretty at ease.

Marco’s cool demeanor dissolved when they approached the Cork and Bean, though. In the darkness, Nachos was mewling sadly at the night. Marco called out to her and leapt forward into a sprint, tearing away from Star.

Marco was stopped short before he could get too close. Nachos let out a roar and a plume of flame that illuminated the area, revealing that there were a couple of thuggish teenagers waiting nearby. In the brief flash of fire, Star could see thick chains binding the dragoncycle and a sharp knife glinting in the light. Adrenaline filled her veins, and she instinctively assumed a combat stance.

The knife-wielding thug – a gruff young septarian girl from the brief glimpse Star got – kicked Nachos, eliciting another mournful whine, and then started the negotiations in a cold tone. “You have a nice bike here, human. Wager you’ve got other nice things. We’ll have them, or we’ll have the meat off your dragoncycle’s bones. You can decide.” The other kid – a mewman, Star guessed from the clothing – stood by wordlessly, letting the rhythmic clatter of a heavy chain swinging back and forth speak for him.

Marco seemed awestruck, unable to process what was happening. He hadn’t even readied himself for a fight. Star urged him to get it together. “Marco come on, we can take these punks.”

Marco didn’t respond, though. Instead he pleaded with their robbers that they not hurt Nachos. “Just tell me what you want, okay?” He looked back at Star and gestured that she should back down. “No one needs to get hurt here.”

Star did not back down. Instead she moved in to back Marco up, still poised to attack, eyes locked on the mugger with the knife.

The septarian girl replied, “I want whatever you’ve got, rich boy.”

“Okay. That’s fine.” He patted himself down. “How about a wad of cash?”

“A rich boy wandering around with a wad of cash. You’re a living punchline. Hand it over.”

Marco held out a week’s worth of wages rolled up into a ball of bills.

Star glanced at Marco with surprise, “Marco what are you doing? Just grab her!”

“I’m not about to fight a couple of troubled kids, Star.”

The girl’s attention jumped to Star. “‘Star’ is it?” She chuckled, “The Princess of Ruin? Wandering around Mewni in the dark with a piece of human trash?”

Star tensed up and growled, “What about it?”

“Ooh scary. Gonna blow us up, princess?”

“Oh, I would love to.”

The girl sneered, “But you can’t. Already spent all your magic ruining Mewni, didn’t you? Brave of you to be out around here at night. You’re a four-letter word on these streets. If you’re not careful, you’ll get your throat cut.” She waved her knife around with a wicked smile.

Star felt ill to hear it put so plainly. It wasn’t surprising, though. She’d gotten a lot of menacing glares in Mewni after the Cleave. Shortly after that, she changed her look to avoid recognition, but a haircut and a new wardrobe only go so far. Sometimes her name came out in public and suddenly all eyes were burning holes in her back. In the silence of her mind, she would sometimes hear their bewildered, disappointed whispers in endless cacophony. Years of quietly trying to fix things didn’t make her any less hated. Of course she should expect to get her throat cut if she walked around Mewnian ghettos at night. Obviously. She felt like an idiot for relaxing her guard just because Marco was with her.

Marco raised his hands up, pleading for the two of them to stop. “Listen. Here’s a wad of cash. We don’t have anything else, okay? No need for fighting, alright?”

The girl scoffed at Star and turned back to Marco, “Just hand it over.”

Marco held out the roll of bills for the girl to take. “What do you need it for, anyways? That you’re willing to go around threatening people like this, I mean.”

She snatched it from him and snapped, “It’s not about need. It’s about getting what’s ours, human. The threats are just a perk of the job. Stay out of Mewni if you don’t like it. Both of you.” Then she gestured at her accomplice and turned to leave.

“You know I’ve met kids like you before,” Marco entreated at them, “You’re putting up walls. You could build bridges, though. Make connections with people.” He gestured at Star, who was still poised for a fight. “We could help. We’re trying to make things better. You don’t need to be alone in this.”

The girl turned back with fury in her eyes. “Don’t spout your idealistic garbage at me. I’ve seen how your kind ‘helps’ my people. I’ve lost a dozen ancestors since we got stuck here with you,” she glared at Star when she said this. “Gone. Where do you think they went, human? After being alive for hundreds of years. Proud. Eternal. You haven’t seen the vans come in, been left wondering who you’d lost this time. Come back to me about building bridges when everything you have has been stolen from you. Until then, be happy you only lost your pocket change.”

Star’s ears perked up at the mention of the disappearances. “What vans? What are you talking about?”

The girl hissed and repeated herself, “Stay out of Mewni,” then the pair ran off and disappeared into the darkness.

Marco rushed to Nachos’s side and crouched down beside her in the darkness to work away at untangling her. “It’s okay girl, I’ll get you sorted out.”

Star felt numb, like her limbs were hanging from strings. “We just got mugged,” she stated plainly. “And you just gave them all your money! Why would you do that?”

“My mom always told me that no amount of money is worth more than your life. But wow, that was not a fun way of testing that out.”

That wasn’t what Star meant. Marco was so strong, why wouldn’t he stand up for himself? Again. “Should we… should we tell the police?”

Marco thought about it for a few seconds before replying. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“We just got crimed at! And I can’t believe you didn’t stop them! A couple of thugs with a knife and chain is nothing for Team Starco.”

“Star you heard her. Sounds like she’s got enough in her life. I don’t think she needs the police hunting down every ‘young female septarian’ in Echo Creek.”

That might be a good point. Setting the police on a monster hunt like that would probably be the fastest way to get more tanks out on the street. “But we shouldn’t just let criminals go around mugging people.”

“We probably shouldn’t let people go around disappearing monsters either.”

That brought Star’s rampaging ire to a standstill. “Yeah. Okay, that’s true. What do you think that was about?”

“I don’t know Star. Vans making people disappear doesn’t sound like a thing I want to believe in. It sounds like black ops bad guy government stuff from a movie is what it sounds like.”

“Okay. Look. If that’s happening, then it’s also terrible. But it doesn’t excuse these kids going around stealing from people.”

“I just think… with everything that’s going on right now – like that business from yesterday with the tank? And the weird ‘border’ patrols. And the carding. I’m just not feeling super confident in the police right now.”

Star crossed her arms and paced around in a contemplative mood while Marco worked on the chains. She suddenly felt very annoyed that the street wasn’t properly lit up. This would never have happened if the street were bright enough to see criminals at work. But there wasn’t a single electric street lamp in sight. Why not, huh? The humans hooked up the castle. It couldn’t be that hard to connect other Mewnian neighborhoods to Echo Creek’s power grid. Was it because the people here didn’t want human tech? Or because humans didn’t think they deserved it? Why were there these weird invisible walls between everyone?

Marco tossed aside the last of the chains binding Nachos. He hugged his beloved friend-slash-ride and told her he was sorry for leaving her like that. She seemed to be grateful to have him back.

Star was relieved to see Nachos was okay, but she suddenly felt robbed of all the joy she got from spending time with Marco that afternoon. “We were having such a nice time.”

Marco took her hand. “Since when has a little chaos ruined a fun evening? I had a great time hanging out with you. And if I was going to get mugged with anyone, I’m glad it was with my very good friend Star Butterfly.”

“Princess of Ruin…” Star squeezed his hand and hugged him. “You’re kind of a dork, Marco.” After letting him go, she let out a heavy sigh. “Why has this week been so awful?”

“Sometimes weeks are just awful, dude. Luckily there are more weeks to come.”

“Wise words, sensei.”

On the ride home, Star clung to Marco’s back and tried to listen for his heartbeat over the roar of the engine and the rush of wind passing over them as they flew through the cool night sky. She smiled as they said their goodbyes, but after Marco flew off, the light drained from her eyes. She wished he could stay the night. Maybe she should have asked. But that felt too selfish. She could take care of herself.

She spent the rest of the evening alone, searching the internet into the early morning, looking for any information she could find about muggings, mysterious vans, and missing septarians. She opened a notebook, turned past a few pages of notes on martial arts refereeing corruption, and recorded any thought-provoking details she could find. Before finally turning out the light, she dug a sharpie out of her desk and gave the notebook a title: “Star’s Justice Keeper”.

[](https://www.cutercounter.com/)   



	11. Ocha

_Tea, bitterly steeped,_  
_Over many words suffered;_  
_The dry vessel, sweet._

As the last of Marco’s _karate_ students were wrapping up, Sensei Brantley made an appearance from his office at the back of the dojo to clap Marco on the shoulder. “Good work out there today. Your guidance down the noble path of ~martial arts~ is clearly making a difference for these youths. Come, let’s drink some _ocha_ and reflect on the way of the empty fist.”

Marco’s sensei always made big deal about debriefing at the end of Marco’s final class of the week. It was a nice way to end the day. Teaching these kids was fun, but there were some new students this week and it was always a struggle breaking them in without crushing their spirits. It required a fine balance between being harsh and saccharine – much like a fine _ocha_ , as sensei would say.

Unfortunately, for all Sensei Brantley’s attempts at pomp and ceremony, he only used bitter, generic, orange pekoe tea bags – always one too many, and never a packet of sugar to be found. Today was no different. After taking exquisite care to rotate the teapot just so, this way and that, he poured the overpowered tea into a couple of small clay cups.

“How is Marco today?”

Marco had once considered his sensei to be a mentor to him, elevated to celebrity status by his youthful imagination, but ever since Marco had earned his black belt and matured into adulthood, he saw the man as more of a colleague and occasional confidant. In truth, Marco outranked his sensei now, but he enjoyed the premise of being his master’s disciple – a champion of the humble strip mall dojo and its teachings. And he felt safe in his master’s company.

Marco let his thoughts flow into words as they sipped their tea. He told his master about the mugging, and how Star was raring for a fight while he attempted to solve things peacefully – and as a side note, he hoped that the stars might align to put next week’s wages in his pocket today – a note that was met with a silent, thoughtful nod. He also told of his continued misgivings about pursuing Burles over the tournament scandal, and how in spite of his unwillingness to continue, Star had turned the endeavor into a crusade.

“And this ‘Star’ is…?”

“My girlfriend, sensei. The blonde girl? Really bright clothes?” His master nodded, though Marco suspected he still didn’t know her. The man had the worst social memory, which was part of the reason Marco felt comfortable talking about his problems; they evaporated into the ether after the teapot was dry.

“She is doing great honor to ~martial arts~. Why don’t you fight alongside her?”

Marco raised his shoulders defensively. “I do! I try to. But she was asking me to be the muscle in her schemes, and I’m not up for being violent over something so petty.”

“A noble philosophy. We must look for every opportunity to solve our problems without violence. That takes strength. But sometimes to do what’s right, we must take action. And sometimes that action comes with a burden of guilt. That too takes strength – to shoulder that weight for the sake of the good we defend.”

The office was cluttered, and seemed to serve in part as storage for Sensei Brantley’s personal belongings. Shelves were filled with odd trinkets, trophies, tape recordings, and piles of manga and superhero comics. Marco wondered what heartfelt children’s cartoons his sensei was feeling inspired by today.

Marco continued defending himself. “I mean, I’m trying to help her in other ways. I’m still not sure why she’s so into this fight. She says it’s for justice, but I think maybe she just… wants to feel like… like she can win at something important? And something about calling that ‘justice’ feels off. She’s usually pretty self-aware about this kind of thing. It’s weird to see her like this.”

Sensei Brantley nodded thoughtfully and set himself another cup of tea, again ritualistically rotating the teapot before pouring. “Have you talked to her about your feelings?”

“Kind of. No. I don’t know. I don’t know if I can.” Marco held his cup gingerly in his hands, rotating it and tapping it in what felt like a soothing rhythm. His feelings felt clumsy and complicated, but it might be good to put them into words. “It just has to be perfect, it feels. This relationship. Because if it’s not perfect, then what was all of this for?” He gestured at the universe as he said this. “Like, we gave up… a lot to be together. A whole lot. Mostly her. She had a whole… uh… I guess like a really good… career?” Marco thought that was probably the easiest way to explain it. “And that’s gone now. She had to start over from nothing. And like, we both burned a lot of bridges and left a bunch of friends behind.”

Sensei Brantley sat in meditative silence. He was either listening carefully or expertly zoning out.

Marco went on. “When things are good, it’s amazing. It feels like we won something precious. Like everything we lost was worth it. But, you know, we’re still regular people. We can’t be in sync all the time. And if I ever feel like something’s wrong? Guilt. Big old crushing mountain of guilt.”

Sensei Brantley gave the occasional nod as Marco spoke.

“She threw away so much. And she got me for it. Just regular old Marco. And usually that seems to make her happy. But sometimes I wonder if she feels… trapped? She’s kind of stuck here.?”

“Oh Marco. There’s always somewhere to go, something to change. The world is very large. And we are always giving things up to pursue what we believe in. Your girlfriend sounds very confident, is that right?”

Marco nodded. Star was, if nothing else, an endless fountain of confidence. Usually.

“From what you’ve said, it sounds like you’ve put a heavy burden on yourself. And maybe she feels the same. But it sounds like she’s not the type of person who would stay in a bad situation for long. And I can’t imagine that someone as caring and compassionate as you would let her.”

Marco was a little startled at how insightful his sensei was being today. The fact that he was sincerely paying attention at all was a novelty. Normally the man just waxed philosophic about the good _karate_ brings to the world.

His master continued, clearly invested in his advice. “You should talk to her. Maybe she’s feeling this weight as well. Wouldn’t it be better to share it? Carry it together?”

“But if she’s not, and it’s just me… She’s already got a lot of stress in her life, sensei. I don’t know if I should add to it.”

The man’s face suddenly took on the weight of many years, and he walked dramatically over to the office’s tiny, filthy window to stare wistfully at the dumpster behind the strip mall. “Marco, I have spent many years reflecting on the shortcomings of my relationships. I know one thing that rings true for all of them, and it is that my most critical mistake was failing to share my troubles.” He turned around theatrically and pointed at Marco. “Fear destroys love. Don’t be afraid of her. Don’t be afraid of the imperfections of your humanity. Being honest with each other, being good friends who help each other, and trusting each other enough to ask for help – these things are worth much more than protecting a naïve romantic fantasy.”

While considering those words, Marco noted a pile of cutesy _shoujo_ manga – the _Pure Gentleman_ series – among the other stuff scattered about the room. His master was worldly in strange ways, but the wisdom he contained was still pretty enlightening.

“Thanks sensei.”

Sensei Brantley proudly put a hand on his troubled disciple’s shoulder. “One more thing, grasshopper. You should know that ‘regular old Marco’ is an extraordinary thing to be.”

“Thank you sensei.”

“You’re a strong person. So strong, in fact, that I know you’ll understand when I say I definitely cannot possibly pay you until next week.”

Marco nodded solemnly. “Yes sensei.”

Then they drank the teapot dry, talking about the nobility of the empty fist.

[](https://www.cutercounter.com/)   



	12. Not at Home

“Well this is not going well,” Star grumbled to herself. She was hiding under a desk in a stranger’s house waiting for an opportunity to, she guessed, leap from a second story window into what she hoped would be some shrubbery? She thought she remembered shrubbery. This was a good plan, she tried to reassure herself.

That morning, Star left the castle with a backpack full of surveillance gear. She arrived across the street from her target around mid-morning, then hid in the bushes where she quickly changed into a dark hoodie, baggy jeans, and thick sunglasses, and then settled in with binoculars and dry cereal to wait for the right moment to strike. According to the dossier that Janna had prepared for her, she was looking at the house of one Regis Roy: suspected corrupt referee, long time city councilor, and bachelor. He generally set his own schedule, so it was kind of tricky catching him out of the house at just the right moment. She needed to get in immediately after he walked away from his computer so that it would still be awake and unlocked when she got to it.

It was mid-afternoon when the action started. She was humming cheerfully to herself while munching on some Captain Blanche when she spotted Regis getting up from his desk. She sat up straight with excitement when the front door opened… and… yes! He got in the car. Time to move.

She scouted out the street for pedestrians before walking as casually as possible across the street and behind Regis’s house. She was feeling brave after Janna had psyched her up. They spent hours preparing for this slightly-criminal-but-only-if-she-got-caught mission. Janna suggested that broad daylight was an excellent cloak of invisibility for a break-in. Most people should be at work, right? And how often do people even look outside? Practically never, right? But even if they did, police would probably take forever to respond, and her outfit was so far from her usual look that no one would be able to identify her – so long as she got away.

Around the rear of the house, she slipped on a pair of latex gloves and started looking for an easy way in. She found success with an unlocked sliding door, which was kind of a bummer; she was hoping to put her newly practiced window-opening skills to the test, but that would have to wait for another day. She had to admit she was pretty excited at the prospect of maybe doing this again some time. She might make a hobby of this. When the door opened without resistance, she suddenly felt amped up to eleven. This was happening. Adrenaline pumped through her with every step she took in the house. Was she… grinning? Get serious, Star, come on.

Star had memorized Janna’s floor plans from the dossier, so she made a quick beeline for the office on the second floor where she found the computer – awake and unlocked, just as planned. Star grabbed a portable disk drive from her bag and copied everything from the documents and downloads folders into it. She’d look at it all later. For now, just in and out. Still, the data transfer was going to take twenty minutes. While she waited, she quickly searched through his emails for anything related to payoffs and rigging fights. She scored a few hits and added those emails to the list of files to be moved over to the portable drive. She also dropped a mail redirection rule onto his inbox so that she could continue spying on his communications – a little trick Janna showed her.

Fifteen minutes left. She sifted through the papers on the desk and the contents of the drawers, trying not to think about why he needed to keep that much moisturizer so near to his office computer, and then dug through the trash, incredibly thankful for the gloves Janna had supplied. She found a few passwords, a few details for contacts, and some bank statements. Some of the documents were stained with smears of black… ink? She took photos of everything she could find and did her best to leave the office exactly as it was.

Ten minutes. She figured while she waited, she could take a quick peak around the rest of the house for anything interesting. The living room was unremarkable, same with the kitchen. The bedroom… was not. When Star opened the door, she was startled to find a coating of partially-crystalized black slime on almost every surface in the room – a whole lot of it on the floor and bed, some crawling up walls, some on dirty clothes and towels.

“What the…” She was awestruck. How could someone live like this? It was disgusting. It all looked just like the little pool of purplish-black slime in Burges’s room – and just like the diagrams in that strange book. Maybe this is where Burges got it from? She felt compelled to take photos. Surely Janna would appreciate it, even if it wasn’t anything Star wanted to deal with. Janna would probably also like… some samples… for science, she guessed? Star mimicked Janna’s actions in Burges’s room, snapping off a few of the largest crystalline tendrils and stuffing them into her bag. She also nicked a glass jar she found in the kitchen to scoop up some of the viscous goop. The whole room felt like a biohazard, and she was happy to close the door and put it out of her mind. Janna had better be grateful for this.

Star was on her way back to the office to collect the portable drive when she heard the front door close. Her heart jumped into her throat. It was all over. Oh, it was all over. This was about to go from not-quite-criminal to fully-one-hundred-percent-criminal.

In a panic, as quietly as she could manage, she made her way back to the office. She needed that drive – if for no other reason than to make sure it wasn’t discovered. She heard keys being dropped into a bowl. Shoes being discarded on the floor. Footsteps leading… to… the kitchen, she exhaled with relief. Regis must have gone shopping. A speed shopper, Star frowned. Not only Is he a villain, but he also hates having a good time in a grocery store. Another sin for the pile.

She scrambled over to the desk, stuffed the drive in her bag, and then… realized she didn’t really have a plan for this situation. The kitchen was in plain view of the bottom of the stairs, so she couldn’t just leave. If she was lucky, he might go to the bathroom or the bedroom before the office. Gambling on that possibility, she hid under the desk and tried to come up with a Plan B for if he entered the office first.

Sadly, the best idea she could come up with by the time she heard footsteps on the stairs was jumping out the window. Which, you know, on further consideration, shrubbery or not, was not a great plan. But neither was hiding under the desk. If Regis sat down – when he sat down – she would be entirely cornered. She steeled herself. Made sure her hood was up. Sunglasses on. Voice dropped. If he came in, she’d surprise him and bolt for the door. That should work. Okay. Here we go. The office door opened. Footsteps. Okay. Okayokayokay.

The desk provided plenty of cover – and frankly was a little too spacious underneath for a humble home office desk – but it also blocked Star’s view of the office floor. She had to go by the sound of his footsteps alone. She tried to count them as though it would help. One. Two. She readied herself, bracing against the seat of the chair, winding up to leap out from under the desk. Three. Four. He was close now. Oh he was close. Too close. Was he too close? Go. Go go go go.

Star launched the chair away from the desk as hard as she could. It made a clamor when it slammed into the wall, and before it toppled to the ground, Star was up, dashing out from under the desk. She assessed the room like a terrified rabbit. There he was, the same man who weeks before had cheated Marco out of an honest fight. Would he recognize her somehow? He was startled, but she had maybe seconds before he recovered. She knocked papers and knickknacks off the desk and into the air, then started rounding the room and sprinting for the door.

But Regis was, after all, a martial arts referee. He was trained. Retired, but trained. He moved effortlessly to block her exit, grabbed her arm with lightning speed, and demanded to know what she was doing in his home. He looked ready to put a fist through her jaw. Star was shook, but in a moment of blind adrenaline, she reacted with the reflexes of a princess who had spent her formative years fighting against monsters for her life. She might not be a stellar martial artist, but she still knew how to kick butt.

A few second of blind fury later, and Regis was on the ground. Blood dripped from his nose. He was stunned, and Star bolted from the room, hollering back in a fake voice that she was sorry. She was out the back door in seconds. It would be foolish to go back to the front of the house now, so she kept her momentum and smashed through a hedge and into a neighbor’s yard. Then she hopped a couple of fences to put some distance between her and the Roy household. Safely out of sight, she hunkered down behind someone’s shed to ditch her black hoodie for a bright yellow one she pulled from her bag. Then she walked, as casually as possible, out of this random back yard. She walked in the general direction of Janna's house and – hopefully – disappeared.

Star was still shaking when Janna opened the door. The yellow hoodie and the sunglasses were gone, left in a trash can on the way over. Star was now dressed like a regular, well-behaved college student.

Janna welcomed her into the house. “Hey hey. You survived.”

“Barely.”

“Well come in and debrief dude.”

Janna’s room was tucked away in the back of the home. She was renting a little room in a house that she shared with a handful of strangers. As they made their way through the halls, Star could hear the sounds of television and boisterous conversation from behind the doors. She didn’t quite understand the appeal of this cramped living arrangement. The kitchen was always filthy. There was no living room. It felt very unwelcoming compared to the Ordonia family home. But Janna was kind of weird about everything in general. Maybe this was just her comfort zone.

Janna kicked some floor stuff out of the way and flipped her bed down for Star to sit on. She sat and swiveled in her desk chair, staring at Star with an eager look on her face. “Tell me everything.”

Star relayed most of the details about the heist. She left out the part where she maybe broke a guy’s nose. Janna was noticeably energized every time Star mentioned one of the Janna Brand™ Sneak-Good Techniques they had practiced, but before Star had even finished telling what happened, Janna was already rummaging through her loot – clearly more interested in the contents of the bag than in Star’s emotional state.

“Oh no way. Is this more slime stuff?” Janna held up the jar to the light, fascinated.

Star had completely forgotten about the weirdness in Regis’s bedroom. Her mind was still full of the chaos of her escape. “I guess it is. Hey, can I lay down here. Like for a while. And just not talk.”

“Do it up.”

Star collapsed on Janna’s bed and covered her face with the crook of her arm. Her body ached. She felt her torso and arms and found sore spots – bruises, she guessed. Regis must have got her a few times before he was knocked down. She couldn’t remember. It was all a blur of adrenaline. She silently listened to Janna’s movements. The stuff on Janna’s desk shifted over to the side to clear some space. A small, empty jar was placed on the desk’s surface. The something shattered and clinked against the glass. A book was opened, its pages flipped. Janna made interested noises to herself and a pen was dragged across paper in quick strokes.

While Star wanted nothing to do with the crystals, the slime, or the book, she had made peace with the fact that Janna was a force of nature with her own agenda – one where Star’s well-being was not always at the top of the list. It was on there, though. Probably. But since solving mysteries was a high priority item for Janna, she was still a pretty a reliable ally for these… slightly-criminal-but-only-if-you-get-caught activities.

“Hey, did you get any photos of the slime room?”

Without uncovering her face, Star silently held up her unlocked phone for Janna to peruse.

“Oh wow, this is nuts. What’s going on with this guy?”

“Well Janna, he is accepting bribes to rig martial arts competitions and that is about as much as I want to know.”

Janna hummed cheerfully while swiping through Star’s photos. After she’d finished with the phone, she tossed it back to Star with a thanks. She put away her research materials and brought out her laptop to start working through the files Star had transferred to the portable drive. She was clearly delighted by the work, making pleased and celebratory exclamations as she opened files and read through documents.

Star’s imagination became unshakably fixated on Regis’s bloodied nose. What would Marco say when he found out. If he found out. Yeah probably he shouldn’t find out.

“Hey Star, you’re famous. The police just put up a post looking for ‘any information about a young man, 5’8” in a black hoodie and baggie jeans seen leaving the scene of a break-in and assault in the west end of Echo Creek around 2pm this afternoon.’”

Star felt a little queasy. Of course Regis would call the police. Of course they’d be looking for her. She wasn’t entirely convinced changing outfits during her escape was useful. But they did get the height and gender wrong, so at least they were looking for the wrong person.

Janna turned around in her chair with a giddy, devilish look on her face. “Did you punch the guy!?”

“He grabbed me. I had to get away.”

“Staaaar!” Janna held out her fist for a fist bump. Star reluctantly returned the gesture.

“I know you think this is exciting, but punching a guy was not in the plan.” She took a deep breath and asked Janna to keep this part of the heist a secret.

“What heist?” Janna winked.

While Janna was working, one of her housemates started… jumping up and down? Hammering the wall? Oh wait. Oh that was… right. Yes. And Janna was either so comfortable with the noise or so uncomfortable with it while in Star’s company that she didn’t even react. Star started up a conversation as a distraction.

“So why did you move in here, anyways? Your family’s house seemed pretty nice.”

“Oh uh. The folks. Wasn’t a healthy place for my brain, you know? And the rent here is pretty good. I can get by doing little gigs here and there.”

“Don’t you find it a little… cramped?”

“Nah. Plenty of space. There’s a whole half of the room full of untapped storage potential.”

Star looked around at the floor and desk and walls, full to bursting with Janna’s projects, research, and laundry. “You mean like… the ceiling?”

Janna shot a finger gun back at Star without turning around. “Once I figure out how to get gravity out of the way, this room is really going to open up.”

Star reflected on her own troubles at home. She loved her family dearly, but it felt like she was putting a lot of stress on her mom just by living there sometimes. And it was a two-way street. She felt like her mom was just a whole extra thing she had to deal with. It would maybe be better if she weren’t living there.

“What was so bad with your parents?”

“Uh. They’re very… traditional. There was a whole vibe there that made me feel pretty bad about like… my clothes, my body, my independence.” She paused for a moment to finish sorting some documents into a folder on her laptop. “I think they were hoping I’d make a pretty wife and a few grandkids one day. And there are… uh… a _couple_ issues with that. So yeah, we have some irreconcilable differences, I’d say.”

“That sucks. They seemed so nice whenever I was over.”

“They do that.”

“You don’t see yourself getting married?”

“I mean marriage is a pretty miserable institution. Comes from a real gross history of treating women like property. At least here on Earth it’s always been like that. Maybe it was different in Mewni. But I’m not super jamming on the idea of being some guy’s trophy or whatever, you know? And uh…” Again, she paused while she downloaded some articles from the internet and moved them into folders. “Honestly, I don’t think I’d be such a great bride. I can’t really see myself as much of a girl.”

“Aw come on, dude. You’re basically the coolest girl I know.”

“Oh, I know I’m cool. Just not so sure about the girl thing.”

Star puzzled over that one for too long, so Janna continued.

“It’s like… maybe you look in the mirror on a real good day and you see your face and hair done up nice, and a pretty summer dress, and everything is looking real great. And you’re looking at this princessy epitome of feminine charm, and you think, ‘Yes, perfect, this is me at my best.’

“Whenever I’m all done up like that, it feels pretty gross. I used to think it was just gender norms being awful, but it started feeling like I was wearing someone else’s skin whenever I was dressed up. But look: give me loose t-shirt, hide those curves a bit, grease up that hair a bit, and I look great. More like me. And I think the Janna in my head, the me at my best, that person is definitely not whatever a girl is supposed to be, and I’m cool with that. And my folks… aren’t.”

“Huh.” Star let all of that tumble around in her head for a while before a word came to mind. “So, are you… like… trans?”

Janna stopped what she was doing and thought for a few quiet moments before she had a response. “Maybe? I don’t know if I can really… own that word, though. I mean I’m not super dysphoric. I’m not a boy trapped in a girl’s body, you know? But I dunno, there’s all kinds of ways to be trans. I’ve seen the word ‘nonbinary’ thrown around, which is close I guess, but I don’t know if I need a word for it. Just rocking my own thing over here.”

Star had never seen Janna so exposed before. It was kind of weird, but she felt like this was important, like being a good friend in this moment was critical. She had no idea how to say what she wanted to say, but she knew it had to be said.

“Hey, you know I don’t care if you’re trans, right? That’s totally cool with me. Not that it matters what I think is cool or not! But it doesn’t change anything… for us—"

Janna scoffed at Star, “Come on, relax dude. You’re my tightest of confidants. If I thought you’d be weird or awful about it, I would _not_ have told you.”

“Okay. Cool. Cool. Thanks. For sharing this with me.”

“It’s cool. Easier than spending the rest of my life dodging the question of why I don’t talk to my folks anymore.” Janna returned to her work, and after a few minutes she started wrapping things up. “Okay, so I’m just getting everything organized for you here. Some real juicy stuff. You’ll love it. And hate it. Gonna be a rollercoaster.” With a few final clicks and drags, Janna clapped her hands and turned around, laptop in hand, ready for a presentation. “Alright, so we got some good news, some bad news, and some weird news.”

Star sat up at full attention. “Hit me.”

Janna opened up a folder labelled _fraud_ , and a handful of documents. “Behold! The fruits of your labor. You got everything you need to get this guy for being a scuzzy ref. He’s done.”

“Nice.” They shared a high five. Star felt relieved. At least all the risks she took were worth it. Still probably not worth breaking a guy’s nose though. Hmmmmm… no definitely not. Still gonna hold on to that guilt for a while.

“Okay the bad news.” Janna opened a folder labelled _scandal_ , along with some emails and news articles. “Surprise: this guy isn’t just a super shady referee – he’s also a super shady city councilor. We’re talking kickbacks for bidless contracts, pushing policies for right-wing extremists, that kind of thing. If you want to get this guy for realsies, you’ve got a lot to get him with, but… this is a whole other league of trouble.”

“Bidless contracts?”

“Yeah, like his buddy owns a construction company, so he just gets the council to approve buddy’s offer on a project without asking for competing offers. Buddy cuts him a chunk of the fee. Taxpayers are swindled. Not great.”

“And the… right-wing policies?”

“There’s a lot of ‘annex Mewni’ and ‘get rid of the monsters’ rhetoric from him during council meetings. And he’s been accepting donations from local hate groups to issue permits for public events with… questionable themes.”

“Okay. Well that’s… heavy stuff.” She didn’t even know where to start with something like that. But… it sounded like a big deal. Star listened to Janna explain some of the finer details, and as Janna went on, Star felt that this was something she had been aching for. This man was vile, and she finally had some face to put behind all the garbage she hated about the world. An enemy to hunt. It was exhilarating to imagine how important this could be, and she felt vindicated now, knowing she’d brought such a villain to the ground. A little of that guilt was evaporating away. It shouldn’t feel good to have hurt him, but… it did feel… _just_. And justice felt real good.

Janna interrupted Star’s train of thought to continue the presentation. “Okay time for the weird stuff. You are not going to like this, but it’s important.” The final folder was labeled _slime_. Inside were a few photos and articles about Regis that Janna had pulled off the internet. Some photos were from dinners, some from speaking events, some from his refereeing. In each photo, there were a few black stains on Regis’s clothing – the slime.

Star sighed, “Janna please I don’t—"

“Look, I know this isn’t your jam, okay, but look at these photos. This guy’s covered in stains, but he’s at professional gigs? And no one bats an eye? None of these articles mention it. See, here’s a video where his shirt is super gross with the stuff and he’s just shaking hands with this lady like it’s nothing.”

Star grudgingly looked over Janna’s materials. And the more she looked the more it was obvious why Janna thought this was so important. “They really can’t see it.”

Janna nodded.

“And we… can see it…”

Janna nodded again with a grin.

“Because…”

“Yeah.” Janna shrugged. “Wish I knew. Because we’ve been to Mewni? Because we touched the Magic? Because the high school served enchanted cafeteria food? Who knows?” She closed her laptop dramatically. “Anyways! That’s the good, the bad, and the weird.” She clapped her hands together to signal the end of the show. “Thank you for attending my presentation.”

Star applauded weakly. “Good work. Terrible ending. But thanks for putting this all together. Looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me now.”

“Go get ‘em, tiger. Let me know if you need anything else. I love this stuff.”

Star still felt a bit uneasy about the weird news. “Listen. These black stains. The book. The crystals. Whatever you’re doing next, keep me out of it, okay? I got you this gunk from the house as a favor for all the work you’re doing, not because I’m interested in it.”

Janna crossed herself and swore to keep Star in the dark.

They sat around and talked for a while about other things. Tom’s party on Friday. Plans for the summer. Exams. Then Star remembered why she was asking Janna about moving out earlier.

“So, I’ve been thinking maybe I should get out of the castle and live on my own. Maybe find an apartment in Echo Creek. Indoor plumbing is such a treat, you know?”

Janna shot an approving finger gun at Star. “Moving out. Highly recommended. Also indoor plumbing.”

Star fiddled with her hands a bit as she continued. “And uh… your room is kind of cramped and noisy, right? And… I probably can’t get a place on the human side of town on my own.”

Janna looked a little surprised. “You don’t want to shack up with Marco?”

“Well. I mean yes. That would be awesome, obviously. But he’s really happy living with his family. He loves his mom and dad so much, and you should see how he is with his sister. They are so adorable together. And I don’t really want to make him choose between that awesome family life and living with his super cool girlfriend.”

Janna contemplatively folded her hands in front of her chin. Her eyes wandered around, taking in the details of her room. Confined space. Messy floors. Overstuffed bookshelves. Fold-away bed. A ceiling utterly unusable for storage – for now. She closed her eyes for a moment of reflection. “That’s a big ask. Give me some time on it.”

“No rush.” Star smiled to herself. Even having Janna thinking about it was a win. It would be pretty sweet if her plan worked out. Star saw Janna as a bit of a superstar and looked up to her in a lot of ways, and she imagined it would be super fun living with a friend again – as long as the burgeoning occultist could keep her arcane research confined to her room.

They said their goodbyes while Star packed up the portable drive and Janna’s notes. She was about to head out when she realized Janna might be down to help with another strange happening in town. “Hey before I go. There’s this other weird thing going on. Mysterious disappearances in monster ghettos. You interested?”

Janna beamed. “You had me at ‘weird thing’.”

[](https://www.cutercounter.com/)   


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi. It's me, the author. I don't normally like to supplement my work, but I guess I should probably address regendering a character out of canon.
> 
> I feel like a lot of gender identity and queerness couldn't be tackled properly in the show while it was a Disney property. Little nods here and there, but never anything deeper. Like for example, Star is almost definitely pansexual but probably has no idea that's unusual. Tom could easily be bisexual without realizing it. Marco is canonically comfortable with cross-dressing without it sacrificing his sense of masculinity. Jackie is canonically not straight. And, to me, Janna codes as nonbinary and asexual.
> 
> Janna has always struck me as a person who lives outside of a lot of normative spaces. Considering the way she dresses and acts and fights the patriarchy etc. - it's not addressed in the show, but I'm close to a lot of nonbinary people in my life and it strikes me as pretty likely that Janna would be the type of person who would cast off the gender binary for a variety of reasons. Mild dysphoria seems like something she would wrestle with. The terrible politics of gender seems like an even more likely motivator. And the claustrophobia of being confined to a set of rules based purely on some random biology - I mean Janna hates rules, she hates oppressive structures, and she is all about crossing forbidden boundaries. To be clear, a person can definitely be and feel all of these things without being nonbinary, but for me, it feels right for this to be the conclusion Janna reaches after living all of that.
> 
> Am I changing her pronouns? I don't think she's there yet, in terms of figuring out and asserting her gender identity, but maybe one day. Will this be a plot point? Probably not, other than being the main reason she doesn't live at home or get on with her parents now. Is it important to me to try to represent this character in a way that is: true to her character, respectful to the experience of being nonbinary, and that addresses a few of the real experiences she would have in being out to her parents and friends? Yeah. Yeah dude. And if I fail at that, I want to be called out on it, so, you know, please do.
> 
> Okay if you read all that, thank you, I love you. Sorry for jumping in here. Please enjoy the rest of the story.
> 
> \- [AR](https://aphantaray.tumblr.com)


	13. No Reason

Even though a few guests had already arrived, Tom was still fussing with every little detail of the party, nudging dishes around on the buffet tables, setting chairs just so, testing the microphones. The whole event was contained in the recreational wing of the Monster Kingdom’s parliament build – and Eclipsa’s home – the Monster Temple. It was the best venue on the surface world that Tom could find – basically the only one that would be welcoming of the diverse guest list Tom had put together. And since so many of his guests were from Echo Creek or from the lands that used to be immediately around the Butterfly Kingdom, it was also great fit geographically. Eclipsa had been kind enough to let him use the building for social gatherings – in exchange for a few political favors. Tom had no idea why she wanted a dual citizenship arrangement in the Underworld for her kid, but he was happy to pull a few strings for her if it meant having access to such a fabulous venue.

And it was _such_ a fabulous venue. He absolutely adored the architecture of the old temple. Eclipsa and Globgor had done an amazing job restoring it. Tapestries, sconces, and carved stone never go out of style. He had nothing but compliments for them whenever he visited on official business – and he was always happy to make business for a visit.

Another wave of guests arrived, so Tom jogged over to greet them, to thank them for coming, and to show them a little tour of the venue. He directed them to a library that had been set up with videogames, board games, and karaoke; then to a subdued parlor with refreshments and comfortable seating for quiet conversations; and finally, a huge dining hall that had been converted into a dance club in homage to the deceased and legendary Bounce Lounge. Tom had a whole night of live music and DJs lined up, and he was happy to remind everyone that _Love Sentence_ – the best band in the world – would play a set at the end of the night. Yes, they _did_ break up. Yes, Tom _had_ managed to reunite them all for one last gig. Yes, Tom was _entirely_ convinced they would write a new album together after this experience. And yes, of _course_ that album would be dedicated to their number one fan, Tom Lucitor. Obviously.

Tom was zoned out thinking about potential album covers when Janna snuck up on him.

“Tom Lucitor. You devil. How are ya?”

“Janna… uh… O-something…” He realized he had completely forgotten Janna’s last name. “No wait… uh… Ardon? Offenheim? Antoni?” He cringed with every failed attempt, hoping Janna would show some sign he was close. She did not.

“No go on I’ll wait.”

“Janna! My favorite treasure hunter.”

“Just gonna give up, huh?”

“Ha ha… Janna. Please. Don’t look at me like that. It’s not fair. You don’t use your real name for anything. I think I invited at least seven doppelgangers before I got to you.”

Janna gave Tom a coy smile. “How do you know I’m not one of them?”

Tom laughed at first but then realized he truly had no idea how he would tell. As far as he knew, it was entirely within the real Janna’s power to make a perfect duplicate of herself. “Wow you are absolutely correct. Thank you for shattering my reality.”

“Always a pleasure, Mr. Lucitor.”

“You know, it’s probably better I don’t know it. I bet your name is a power word or darkness, the key to summoning the nameless ones.”

Janna seemed pleased by the idea. “It’s ‘Ordonia’. Use it wisely.”

“Janna Ordonia. You animal. Good to see you.”

“Cool setup you got here. How’d you get a whole wing of the Monster Temple for a little shindig like this?”

“Oh you know. Friends in low places.” Tom winked, and then immediately regretted winking because it never looked as cool as he hoped. Luckily, Janna was probably the last person to care if he looked cool or not.

“Crazy tons of security out there, huh? Makes you wonder what’s so important in here.”

“Probably all the government stuff. And Eclipsa. And Eclipsa’s family.”

Tom’s words fell on deaf ears though. Janna had lost interest and seemed to be looking around for what Tom could only assume was trouble. Then she suddenly sprung up like she had remembered something important. She pulled out her phone, opened up a photo album, and shoved the screen in Tom’s face.

“What do you see?” she demanded.

“Oh, uh. That would have to be…” Tom looked at Janna for a hint, but she was as unreadable as ever. “A room?”

Janna gave a disappointed, “Hmm”.

“Uh… a bed? No? A window. Carpet. Okay come on what is it.”

“You don’t see anything unusual?”

“The… aesthetic is terrible?”

Janna shook her head, then swiped over to another photo. “How about this?”

“Guy in a bad suit?”

Janna turned the screen back toward herself. “Yeah. You’re not wrong.” She tested a few more images on him.

“A glass jar? The underside of a bed? Uh… a book… that went through a shredder?”

Janna nodded thoughtfully. “Okay so that’s not it. Well, this has been very informative.” She was speaking more to herself than to Tom. She turned to leave with a subtle wave, saying, “See you around, Thomas,” then she snuck up on the nearest guests to ambush them with the same photo-interrogation Tom had just endured.

Tom waved back weakly. “Alright, have fun I guess?”

As more guests arrived and the party reached critical mass, Tom felt his duties as host becoming less pressing, so he took some time to wander around and mingle with his friends. He was happy to see attendees from all over. People had come from Echo Creek, the various kingdoms of Mewni, and some of his closer acquaintances from the Underworld. It had been ages since he had a chance to see everyone together having a good time. Everyone kept asking him why the party was happening at all, but he didn’t really have any reason. Nonetheless, he told them there would be a big announcement at some point, just to keep them interested.

He still hadn’t spotted Star or Marco yet. But Pony Head was there, and even over the music Tom could hear her piercing voice while she harassed the DJ to play some new dance hit or another: “Like, you must know this one. It’s so in right now. No? What about _Been There Done That_? Ugh useless. Here, let me do it.” Tom watched in awe as she pushed her way into the DJ’s booth. She started pressing buttons and fiddling with knobs until the right jam came on so she could proudly return to the dance floor to show off her moves. The DJ stood bewildered and looked over at Tom, who could only shrug.

While making the rounds, Tom bumped into a demonic acquaintance of his – one Terblight the Red – who was happy to talk to him about her career as a manager in the booming soul torture industry.

“We can barely keep up, really,” Terry lamented. “We go through whips and chains like crazy, and the pile never gets any smaller. That world merger created an explosion of fresh meat for us to process, but we’ve been wicked understaffed for years now and it’s making everyone super stressed.”

“Sounds rough.” Tom tried to sympathize, but really, having too much work seemed to be a pretty weak complaint. Better than hanging around with nothing to do and nothing to eat, right? “Can’t you just hire more demons in?”

“There are no more demons! And with the borders closed, we can’t just bring in more workers, you know? It would be nice to have even a few hundred extra hands. Maybe the humans would be interested in torturing some souls?”

Tom was pretty sure he knew a bunch of humans who would absolutely love torturing souls. Janna, for example, would probably do it for free.

“Yeah, I bet you’d find a few takers. But I’m not sure they would survive down there for long. And I don’t think most demon folk would be very uh… welcoming… of humans.”

Terry continued with a coaxing tone. “But there’s so _many_ of them. They’re practically _expendable_. No big deal if we lose a few, yeah? And it would really ease the load on us.”

Tom got the feeling Terry was trying to cajole him into political action on this, but he wasn’t super on the side of looking at people as a consumable resource anymore. Maybe a few years ago it would have been different, when he still thought of humans as soul food. But he’d spent a lot of effort cutting sentient souls out of his diet. He stuck to dumb animals and such now. Their spiritual energy wasn’t nearly as satisfying, but it made him feel like a better person. Someone who his friends could respect. Someone who could maybe _not_ inspire fear in every human he met.

He abruptly changed the topic to talk about his hobbies – online makeup reviews and such – until Terry started yawning and excused herself. It was easy to forget after millions of views on his content, but some people just don’t understand the joy of picking apart the flaws in shoddily engineered eyeliner.

Sometime later in the evening, Tom spotted Marco hanging out in the parlor with some old high school buddies. Tom powerwalked over to greet him, interrupting the group’s conversation.

“Marco!” He went in for a hug.

“Tom!” Marco embraced Tom with a solid clap on the back. “This party is huge, dude. Food is stellar. Love the music. 10/10.”

“Thanks man. I’m glad you could make it.”

“You made it pretty hard to miss. I was getting so many messages that I nearly threw my phone in the trash.”

“Just wanted to make sure you were coming, buddy.”

“Mission success. Just one message next time though, okay?”

“Right. Got it. You’re looking great, by the way. What’s going on with you these days?”

Marco enumerated the various things that were keeping him occupied – school, work, babysitting for his parents and Eclipsa. “Speaking of,” Marco added, looking around cautiously, “I kind of feel like I’m being watched? This area’s closed off from the rest of the temple, right?”

“Should be.”

“Okay good. Eclipsa’s kid has it out for me and I don’t want to run into her if I can help it.”

“Eclipsa’s kid? The little girl with the tail?” Tom laughed. “Come on Marco, I think you could take her.”

“I’d rather fight a pack of wolves.” Marco was deadly serious. “How about you? What’s keeping Tom Lucitor busy?”

“Oh, you know. Work. Mostly work.”

Marco nodded. “I’m gonna level with you, buddy. I have no idea what you do.”

“It’s not glamorous. Lots of meetings. The old man is getting me ready to take over in a few years. I get the feeling he thinks I’ll put my demonic powers to work for the business, but man, that feels kind of awful when I think about it. That’s just not who I want to be anymore – all that mind meddling and stuff. I haven’t done it in months. Not even a little. My dad hasn’t caught on yet, so maybe I’ve got what it takes to be a mundane businessman.”

“Yeah I’m not gonna lie, Tom, that sounds super boring. But it’s great you’re living your best life, true to yourself and all that. I’ve always liked how you keep trying to be a better person. You see something you don’t like about yourself, and you _fix_ it. That’s really cool. Lots of people just keep being bad, or they get even worse. Like, there’s this kid at the dojo – Jeremy. I’ve known this miserable spoiled little brat for years and he’s still just a _terrible_ person. You should come by the _dojo_ sometime. Give a motivational speech or something. Maybe that would open his eyes.”

Tom’s heart warmed at hearing such sincere praise from his friend, but, before he could thank Marco, Janna sprung up behind them and interrupted their conversation.

“Hey Diaz. Looking sharp. Hey, look at these pictures and tell me what you see.”

Tom interjected, slightly annoyed, “You’re _still_ at this? Are you bugging everyone with this stuff?”

“Almost.”

Marco looked through the images in the album. “Is there a prize or something?”

“You could say that.”

“Would I be right?”

“Oh, no. No. Not at all.”

“Okay. Well most of these are pictures of stuff covered in weird black goo. And this last one is a picture of a book with a _drawing_ of weird black goo. Is this written in… _Rikkotan_? No. Hm. It’s a little off—"

Janna’s eyes were positively on fire. “—You can _read_ this!?”

“Uh, almost. Where’d you find this book? I’ve only seen stuff like it in the Neverzone.”

Janna could not contain her excitement. She grabbed Marco’s shoulders and shook him vigorously. “Oh man. Oh _man_! Marco! You win, dude!”

“Okay, so there _is_ a prize now.”

“‘There is a prize now’ – you have _no_ idea.” Janna excitedly brought up a photo of the front cover of the book and shoved the phone back into Marco’s face. “What’s it called?”

“Uh… the cover says… _kippotk o veirn rerrnl i_ which translates to… something like ‘ _Doors and… Procedures… of the… Deep_ ’? No that sounds kind of weird. Maybe… uh… ‘ _An In-Depth Travel Guide_ ’?”

“Oh Marco, you beautiful, beautiful man. You are coming to my house. Soon. Okay? Big prize waiting for you.”

“Uh, sure. How soon?”

“Very. I’ll be in touch.” Janna clapped her hands together, clearly feeling very accomplished. With a huge grin on her face, she excused herself to continue harassing the other guests.

Tom and Marco shared a confused look and a shrug. The last time Tom had seen her so energetic was when they were digging around in the amalgam together and stumbled across a perfectly in-tact cultist ritual site.

“You saw black goo?”

“You didn’t?”

“Nope. Must be one of those magic eye puzzles or something.”

“Yeah I guess. My senses _are_ highly developed from years of intense ~martial arts~ training.”

Tom scoffed. “Yeah I’m sure that’s it, man. Hey, so I was thinking: we never hang out anymore. Isn’t that weird? I feel like we used to hang out more.”

“I hear this is the curse of adulthood, Tom. You just see your friends less and less as work slowly takes over every waking moment of your lives until one day… you only have your cat to talk to.”

“Oh. Man, I don’t even have a cat to talk to.”

“No, I’m kidding. You’re right. We should totally hang out. Let’s make some time. How’s your Sunday?”

“Oh uh. Let me check… Okay not this Sunday or next Sunday, but on the one after that, my afternoon is mostly free. How’s 1? We’ll go see a movie or something.”

“Aw man do they really make you work on Sundays too?”

“Ha, yeah that’s exactly how I feel.”

“Brutal. Yeah sure, let’s do it up.”

They shared a fist bump.

Tom was surprised to find Marco without Star. They were normally pretty inseparable. “By the way, where’s Star at?”

“She said she’d be coming late. She had some volunteering stuff going on after class I think.”

“Not too late I hope. _Love Sentence_ is playing tonight.”

“Shut up. They are not.”

“Yeah. Didn’t I tell you?”

“They broke up!”

Tom beamed with pride. “Well Marco, you can call me the matchmaker extraordinaire because I got them back together for a show.”

Marco was clearly elated at the news. “I’ll text Star like right now. This is amazing. What time are they on?”

“Their first set is around 10.”

“Nice. Nice work, dude. Wow. _Love Sentence_ …” Marco went back to his high school buddies. “Guys! _Love Sentence_ is playing tonight. Here! Yeah!”

Within minutes, Star arrived – out of breath, ready to dance, wearing her favorite _Love Sentence_ t-shirt, and equipped with a sharpie and a copy of the _Just Friends_ single in her bag.

“I am _ready_ ,” she proclaimed to Tom when she found him. “Bring on the band.”

“Okay you’re a little early. Good to see you though.”

“Shush shh shh shhhh. Where are they. Are they here? In a room somewhere? Where is the _Love Sentence_ room?” Star was bouncing with anticipation, looking around as though she would miss the band if she didn’t see them right this instant.

“We’re doing a grand entrance thing right before the show. They’re not here yet.”

“Aw, Tom, come on. I brought my CD and everything. I want them to touch it. With their beautiful hands.” She put her foot down firmly and looked very seriously at Tom. “You will _not_ let them leave without seeing me first.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Okay. Good. How are you?”

Star told Tom she was well, though Tom got the sense she might just be saying that to be polite. She also profusely thanked Tom again for putting her up the other day.

“It’s all good.”

“It’s not! It’s not. I should’ve been more considerate. You’ve got a lot going on too.”

“Starship, please. You’re basically family. You couldn’t possibly ask me for too much, okay?”

Star smiled. She hugged Tom sincerely and thanked him for being so good. “I’m pretty lucky to have such sweet family in my corner.”

“Hey, I feel the same way. Nice knowing you’ve got my back in a pinch.”

Star gave Tom a friendly punch in the arm. “Obviously.”

“So Marco said you were up to some volunteering stuff tonight?”

“Oh, yeah. It’s super boring. You really want to hear about it?”

“Yeah dude. Literally cannot be more boring than my day.”

Star explained her recent work with the Justice Warriors. She’d been helping the activist grandmas plan a charity dinner. But really, she was basically just screen printing posters and wandering all over town posting those posters.

“What’s the occasion?” Tom asked.

“Oh uh. We’re raising money for a hotline for people who get mistreated by the state. It’s like… a phone number and a live chat service to give people emotional and legal support, take anonymous tips, that sort of thing.”

“For monsters?”

“Sort of. It’s for everyone. But yeah probably monsters will get the most out of it.”

Tom marveled at her. “You’re doing some pretty cool stuff up here.”

“Is putting up posters cool? I feel like they could maybe get me doing something a little cooler.”

“Like what?”

Star looked off into the distance and clenched her fist, “Speeches.”

“Speeches.”

“Yeah. Yeah just getting real passionate up there, riling up some emotions, starting some riots.”

Tom smiled. “I’m sure you’ll work your way back up to inciting chaos in no time. Does this charity thing have a cash target or something?”

“There’s not really a target. It’s mostly to raise awareness, get people out and talking about the initiative. Whatever money we get is just icing, but I think the grandmas said it would take a hundred thousand or so to keep it running for a year. It’ll probably take a few events like this to raise enough.”

“Huh.” The contracts Tom had been negotiating for Core Energy dealt with quite a few more zeroes. He wondered if the company could spare some cash to donate something to a good cause. Does Core Energy care about goodness? Probably not, huh? Maybe it should?

Star’s eye darted to a distant part of the room and immediately lit up. “Hey! It’s Pony Head! Oh man I didn’t think she’d show. I’m gonna go say hi, ‘kay? We’ll catch up more later! And by the way, this party looks ~awesome~. I’ll see you on the dance floor, right?”

“You bet you will.”

About an hour before _Love Sentence_ was set to play, Archibald – Eclipsa’s personal butler – flew up behind Tom and tapped him on the shoulder. “Excuse me Prince Lucitor, sir.”

“Oh hi, Archie. Are we being too loud?”

“Oh no, sir. In fact, we were concerned that we might be making too much of a ruckus, so I was sent here to apologize.”

Tom hadn’t noticed any noise, though, so he told Archibald that there was nothing to apologize for and asked what was going on.

“Well sir, you see, we’ve had a bit of a security issue on the other side of the temple. Nothing serious, though.”

Tom immediately assumed Janna must have been sneaking around the temple causing trouble. “Oh, I am so, _so_ sorry. What did she do?”

“‘She’, sir?”

“Oh, it’s not Janna?”

“Oh, no. No, we’d have locked the whole temple down if we had to employ the Janna Protocol. No there was just a little break-in. A small explosive device went off. Startled dear little Meteora into a frenzy, which honestly caused more damage than the explosion – as she does.”

“What!? Were they after Eclipsa?”

“No, no. They’d not have escaped with their lives if they’d approached the Lady Butterfly and her husband. Rather, it seems the crooks were hoping to gain access to a sealed room that the young Princess Butterfly left behind years ago—”

“—I think it’s just ‘Miss Butterfly’ now.”

“Right, of course, my mistake. Well, they didn’t get in. The seal is far too strong. They fled into the night, but we thought we’d let you know to keep your eyes open for any suspicious individuals. There were three of them, in dark clothes, as burglars do. Seems they took advantage of the lax security for the evening to sneak in. Our fault, really. We’re going to be preventing anyone else from entering the temple grounds for the night. I hope that isn’t inconvenient.”

Tom realized his guests were now probably at risk of getting seriously hurt if these criminals were still around. “Should I send everyone home?”

“Well sir, that is entirely up to you. We would hate to ruin your evening, but they did try to blow up part of the building, and perhaps _they_ would revel at disrupting your fun.”

“Right. Well, thanks for the heads up.”

“My pleasure, sir. Have a joyous evening.”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

Tom paced around for a bit with his head in his hands. The evening was going so well. What would anyone be doing trying to blow up a room in the temple? And it sounded like they only got in because of his event, his stupid ‘fun time for everyone’ that would probably have to be shut down now – and right before he could even see his favorite band reunited for the first time in years.

He searched every crowd for Star or Marco. He wanted their advice. Maybe it would be better to let the evening go on peacefully? It sounded like the attackers were after something very specific. There’s no reason for them to just… randomly attack a whole group of young people just having a good time. Right?

“Marco! Marco come here.” Tom pulled his friend away from everyone and explained the situation to him. “What do you think, man? Should… should I just shut everything down?”

“I mean, probably, right?”

“But everyone is having fun. And the band, Marco. Ugh I’m so pumped to see them!”

“Hey same here, but if people’s lives are at risk…”

Tom sighed. He knew Marco would offer a cold and dispassionate voice of reason – which was probably what the situation called for, really. When he was planning the event, Tom had sincerely hoped the Monster Temple would be a peaceful sanctuary. He couldn’t believe this kind of thing could happen. On the one night he wanted to just relax and have a good time with everyone, to have a normal night out with his friends, he’d have to ruin the whole thing now.

But he accepted what must be done and made his way to the dance hall. He bathed himself in demonic flame and floated up to the stage where he cut the music and turned up the lights.

“Hey everyone. It’s super great to see you all. I hope you’re having a great evening.”

The crowd hooped and hollered gratefully at him.

“Awesome. Uh some of you have been asking what the party was for, so as promised… I have a very exciting announcement.” But in fact, he had nothing to announce other than the end of the party. “But uh… before that announcement, I’m gonna boost something cool I heard about tonight. I think most of you know Star. Where are you Star?”

Star’s waving arm poked up from the middle of the crowded dance floor.

“Star’s a super old friend of mine and she’s been doing some really cool charity work lately on a fundraiser dinner for a real good cause. There are posters up all over, so check that out and buy some tickets if you’re feeling generous.”

The crowd offered up a smattering of cheers – though Tom could very clearly hear Marco whooping loudly in support.

“Thanks Star. Okay so uh. Big announcement time. Uh… I don’t know if any of you follow @TomOnFire, but I recently got my millionth subscriber.” Like four months ago. “So that was a very exciting milestone for me, and uh… here we are, celebrating that. Right now.”

The crowd offered up some unenthusiastic cheers, with some shouts calling for the music to come back peppered in. Tom was realizing that his circle of friends was maybe not actually super into his hobbies.

“Yes. The music. Well uh. Okay so about that. I’m really sorry to do this, but there’s been an incident elsewhere in the temple, and they want us to wrap up the party early.”

The hall echoed with boos.

“I know. I’m disappointed too! But it’s been a great evening, right?”

The crowd rumbled with concerned conversation. Someone shouted, “ _Love Sentence_!” and others joined in the cry until it grew into a roar. Tom tried to get everyone to quiet down, but his voice was drowned out in the noise. Maybe one song would be fine. Just one.

“Alright. Alright! We’ll get the boys out here for one song, and then I’m sending you all home.”

The room cheered. Tom dropped the lights again and opened up a demonic gateway. He walked through, then returned a few seconds later with all the members of _Love Sentence_ in tow. The room exploded with celebratory screams, whistling, and applause. The band glanced at each other, nodded, and on the count of four, they launched right into a dance version of _Just Friends_ that went on for way longer than Tom remembered. He was standing in the corner nervously monitoring the time and looking around for any signs of trouble. Meanwhile, the dance floor was absolutely pulsing with joy. He was heartbroken to think that he had to bring all this to a close so soon, but it was the right thing to do. He signaled to the band to wrap up the song, then shuffled the boys back through the gateway while the room shouted an unanswered chorus of, “Encore!”

When he returned to the stage, he turned up the lights again, bid everyone good night and safe travels, and started insistently directing people out of the building. There was a lot of grumbling, but a lot of his friends took the time to thank Tom for the great evening and said they’d look forward to the next one.

Marco and Star hung around to chat with Tom after most of the guests left.

Star was grumpy about not getting a chance to hang out with the band. “The CD, Tom! I just wanted them to touch it! With a sharpie! And their beautiful hands! What the heck happened?”

Tom relayed what Archibald had told him.

Star had a pretty concerned look on her face while she listened to the details. When Tom was finished, Star asked if he was sure no one was hurt.

“That’s what I was told,” Tom replied.

“That’s good. I wonder what ‘sealed room’ they were after. My old secrets closet, I guess? I kind of wish they _did_ blow it up. There’s nothing in there but super embarrassing garbage and diaries.” Star turned to Marco. “Hey, we should go see Eclipsa before we head home. Make sure they’re not too shaken up.” She took Marco’s hand and waved to Tom as they parted ways. “‘Night, Tom! Thanks again for all this. It was really fun.”

“Yeah! See you around.”

Before the two of them disappeared around the corner of the hallway, Tom discreetly floated the _Love Sentence_ CD out of Star’s bag. He popped over to the band’s waiting room and shook their hands. “Thank you so much for doing this, boys. I’m sorry we had to cut it short. It is… really amazing to see you all together, though. Think you’d do this again?”

The boys lovelessly sized each other up and shrugged. They seemed to agree that it would probably only happen again for the right price.

Tom laughed awkwardly. “Ha ha. I hear that.” No love of the art, huh? “Hey, while you’re all here, could you do me another solid favor? I’ve got this CD…”

After Tom said his goodbyes to the band, he returned to the temple and waved his hands around to telekinetically clear away the leftovers of the party, shoveling trash through demonic gateways into the lava lakes of the Underworld. Once everything was tidy, he said goodnight to the guards and wandered around the monster temple grounds in silent reflection for a bit.

It hadn’t been a terrible night, he thought. Definitely the best party he’d ever put together. His friends had fun, right? Yeah. Yeah, let’s count it as a success. Not his fault there was an attack on the temple in the same night.

He popped open a little gateway to Butterfly Castle and tossed the signed and thoroughly fondled CD through so that it landed neatly up against the outside of Star’s bedroom door. Then he headed home, content that he’d done some good that night.

[](https://www.cutercounter.com/)   



	14. Scorched

At their regular coffee session, Janna was hoping to make some headway with a special request she had for Star, but instead she found herself slouched forward in her chair, elbow on the table, cheek resting heavily in her palm, barely listening as Star desperately tried to persuade her to give up her ambitions of gaining access to the Royal Butterfly Library. But she wasn’t giving up.

Star had gotten to the point of frustratedly gesturing while she spoke. “It’s just not worth all the trouble of unsealing it. It’s a shamble now. No one’s managed to sniff out a single book in there since the Index broke down. And my mom just wants to leave it alone, as sort of a historical site, you know?” Star was clearly not at all interested in how awesome a treasure trove of knowledge the library was, or else she would surely be more excited about exploring it. But Janna’s passions were already fired up and there was no backing down now.

Star had told her about the library before – a massive structure that housed countless books from tons of different dimensions – and Janna had recently developed an urgent interest in browsing the stacks. Surprisingly, for once, her desire for mysterious literature wasn’t driven by an unquenchable thirst for occult knowledge. She hadn’t told Star yet, but she had what might be considered a slightly pressing black-slime-related problem. About a week earlier, she had just a _tiny_ incident while following some instructions in the ‘travel guide’ Marco (definitely willingly) translated for her. And a few _small_ symptoms popped up – a mild rash on her hand, a constant tingling-slash-burning in her cheeks, random pulses of pain, the occasional bout of blurred vision, a few dark thoughts here and there; it was probably fine. And yes, they were getting worse every day, but that happens all the time with perfectly harmless colds and stuff, right? But she figured, just in case, the best way to sort out any mistake owing to a cryptic ancient interdimensional book would probably getting some guidance from another equally cryptic ancient interdimensional book. And since she’d already cleared out all the literature from every amalgam cave she could find, the library was her best bet now. Star probably didn’t need to know any of this, though, since she didn’t want anything to do with the black slime. All Star needed to know was that Janna was going to get into that library.

Janna insistently rebutted Star’s deterring rhetoric. “Okay I hear what you’re saying, but here’s the thing: I don’t care. You have to let me see it. I bet it’s got exactly the kind of books I’m looking for.”

“Yeah! Lots! Too many! The library is this massive cavern under the castle. We’re talking easily a few acres of floor space with like ten floors. I sat down and figured it out once: _hundreds_ of _millions_ of books. Why do we need so many books!?”

“A big library is a blessing, Star. And it’s not like we need to read every book. Just point me at the right shelf, I’ll figure it out from there.”

“Janna. The shelves are _empty_. The Index put everything in just… massive piles. I’m sure it was very efficient when it was pulling them out by Magic, but now… I don’t think Crescenta was thinking straight when she made it.”

“And these piles aren’t… organized by anything? Language? Or topic?”

Star laughed. “Oh yeah, sure. Alphabetically. In one of hundreds of mountains the Index calls ‘Pile B’ – for ‘book’.”

Surely Star was exaggerating. But if she wasn’t… Janna had to admit to herself that this was beginning to sound like a fruitless venture. But she didn’t really have the option of giving up on it. “We can’t get this Index up and running again? Is it broken? I can fix broken things.”

“It was powered by the Magic. No Magic, no Index. The library’s just a big fire hazard now. I’m sorry dude, it’s just not worth your time. And uh… frankly I’m kind of worried you’d get sucked into a rabbit hole of dangerous research digging around in there.”

“Psh. Come on Star, I know my limits. I can handle a room full of uncountable tomes of delicious forbidden knowledge.”

Star folded her arms and gave Janna a stern, incredulous look.

“Listen, we both know I’m going to find a way in whether you take me there or not. At least if we go together, you can keep an eye on me, right? We’ll make a date of it. Bring lunch.” Janna didn’t want to admit it, but Star was probably right. Normally, she’d just set up camp and spend the rest of her life in the library. But right now, in her condition… it would be nice if she didn’t have to be down there alone.

Star dragged her hands through her hair in frustration. “Okay fine. Fine. I’ll pull some strings and get us in there. You’re making lunch, though.”

Janna pumped her fist. “Sweet. Thanks, dude. I owe you one.”

“You sure do. I _really_ hate this place.”

A few days later, Janna arrived at the castle equipped with a huge knapsack. She was hoping that Star was wrong about the state of the library and that she would end up walking away with a massive stack of books. In no small part because her pain was getting pretty bad lately.

When Star greeted Janna at the door, she was a bit taken aback by the now very prominent rash on Janna’s right hand. “What happened there?”

Janna covered it slightly, uselessly, and explained that it was just some allergies flaring up. “I get this sometimes. I must’ve accidentally touched some strawberries or something.”

“Huh. Strawberries?”

Janna mentally kicked herself. She loved strawberries. What was she thinking? “Yeah. Darn little mutants. What kind of fruit has seeds all over its skin? Gross, right?” No. No it was super cool. What awesome machination of the universe turned them inside-out like that?

Before setting out on their grand book hunt, they sat down for tea and snacks. Star apologized and shuttled a bunch of strawberried confections out of the room, then they chatted for a while about potential apartments they’d found. There was a promising 2-bedroom sublet near the university that was coming up in the summer. Might be worth checking out.

Janna also briefed Star on what she’d found while investigating the septarian disappearances. “Been meeting with some monster folk in the community. Found a thread about it on a conspiracy forum. They’ve got some theories about a shadowy organization. And a terrifying slug monster. And chemicals in the water. And amalgam fissures. No shortage of theories.”

“Can I have a look?”

“Yeah, I’ll link you to it. One sec.”

Janna pulled out her phone and quickly fired off a message to Star pointing to the forum thread she’d found. Star skimmed it, and then promptly put her phone down, shaking her head.

“Whole lot of crazy out there, huh? How do you get anything useful from all this?”

Janna shrugged. “Gotta ride the wave, dude. The real fun starts when you dive in. Pretend to be one of them.”

“Which one of these is you?”

“ShadowfireX.”

“Pff come on, really?” Star looked over the message board again, eyes widening in awe with every pass. “Janna your messages are more insane than the real ones.”

“Thank you. It’s an artform, really. I call it ‘method crazy’.”

“Yeah you’re nailing it.” Star put her phone away. “I don’t think I could handle this stuff. Cool that you’re having fun, though. And let me know if I can help with other stuff. You don’t have to do all this on your own.”

“I’m a lone wolf, Butterfly. But I’ll let you know if I’ve got a mission for you.”

They continued talking about whatever else came to mind until Star accepted her fate as librarian-for-a-day and led Janna down into the depths of Butterfly Castle.

The library was exactly as Star had described it. An immense wooden door – ornately decorated and expertly carved from the trunk of a single tree – led into a spacious and lavish vestibule that opened all the way up to the ceiling of the cavernous library. The view from the entrance was stunning. Everything was polished, iridescent stone. A massive staircase led up through floor after floor of colorful ten-foot high book shelves – all of which were barren of books. Brilliant white crystals embedded in the ceiling perpetually shone as bright as daylight, and in the center of the ceiling was a mural of Queen Crescenta glamorously penning new books. Massive, chaotic mountains of literature had engulfed entire sections of the library, blocking access to the deeper recesses of the cavern. Janna got shivers thinking about the size of it all. It felt like a dragon horde. The silence was heavy, the musty smell overbearing, and the only thing that gave the library any sense of life was the slight rustle created by the library’s hundreds of book-mending silkworms at work.

Janna crouched down to observe a pair of the strange creatures make their way through a meal. It was bizarre to watch. They had anchored themselves to the remnants of a destroyed book and were wiggling back and forth in the air, chomping at nothing and making crunching sounds. They seemed to be eating… the emptiness where a page ought to be? And then expanding the damaged book with their silk, spinning restored pages from the nothingness they were consuming.

Star told Janna the worms were responsible for restoring the library after the fire that destroyed the castle right before Skywynne was queen. “They just need a little piece to get started. They dig through the dust, find the ashes of destroyed books, and off they go.”

“Seems like something only Magic should be able to do.”

“Yeah. You’d think since they were always hanging around Glossaryck that they _were_ Magic. And yet: here they are. It’s weird what stuck around. They’re probably like the laser puppies and the Pony Heads – creatures that are just… I guess you’d call it ‘supernatural’? As opposed to the other stuff that needed Magic to function at all, and is now completely useless – like this thing—” Star directed Janna’s attention to a marble reception desk, on which sat a single massive tome with similar trappings to Star’s old Book of Spells, except that the gems were faded to grey and the filigree was cracked and peeling. Star presented it with a sarcastic curtsey, “The Index.”

Janna opened the book and carefully flipped through the old parchment. Star’s description had given Janna the impression that it had fully replaced the librarian and basically ran the library – using Magic to stack and retrieve books at the request of the queen, hunting down patrons for late fees, offering unsolicited reading recommendations to young princesses. But if it was ever alive, there was no way to tell now. The pages were rough-cut and yellowed with time, the words written in dry and lifeless ink and in the Low Mewnian language – a security measure that wasn’t much of  barrier for Janna since she’d figured out the Butterfly family’s secret language years ago when she ‘borrowed’ Star’s Book of Spells. And what she read in the Index wasn’t entirely useless. Even in death, it still contained a list of all the books in the library – each with a short description of their contents, and what she guessed was their last known location.

Unfortunately, as Star said, every book in the Index was registered to ‘Pile B-1’ or ‘Pile B-2’ or whichever ‘Pile B’ it happened to be in. It didn’t really matter since the mountains of books weren’t numbered or labeled in any way.

Janna tried to be positive. “Well at least we have a list of titles. Maybe we could throw this in a computer and get a searchable directory.”

Star shrugged. “Yeah take it. Go nuts. The thing’s not doing any good here.”

Janna heaved the enormous Index into her bag and then eagerly followed Star on what turned out to be a brief and unenthusiastic tour.

“To your right, you will see a pile of books larger than a house. Taking a random sample here… A book of rock stew recipes. Yum. And next to that, looks like… mushroom poetry. Very romantic.” She led Janna to another pile. “And on your left, here we have… why yes, it is indeed yet another unsorted mountain of books. What’s this? A textbook on corn. Because apparently there’s a whole… eight hundred pages of theory on the topic of corn. Spoiler alert: it tastes okay. Smush it into circles and triangles for best results. And right underneath that? Illustrated folk tales from a long-dead civilization? How delightfully irrelevant.”

Janna put her hand up to stop Star’s mockery. “Alright dude, I get it. Just let me get to work. You don’t have to help.” She started in at the edge of the closest pile – a smaller pile that still easily contained hundreds of thousands of books. After skimming each book, Janna did her best to stack them into categories. Maybe the library couldn’t be fully restored, but it could still be useful one day if even some of these books could make it back on the shelves.

Star sat in the librarian’s chair and started spinning around slowly. “What are you looking for anyways?”

“Medical textbooks. Folk remedies. Healing rituals. That kind of thing – but uh… very, very old.”

“Did you find a sick ancient horror or something? An old one with a cold?”

A wave of pain pulsed through Janna’s body, but she hid it well.

“Something like that.”

While she worked, she noticed the rash on her hand had gotten worse. It was turning purple and spreading further up her arm. She tried to pull her sleeve down over the discoloration to keep it out of Star’s sight.

Star continued spinning in her chair for a while before heaving a sigh of boredom and meandering over to Janna’s pile of books to hunker down and help sort them into stacks. After a few minutes of quietly working away at the Sisyphean task together, Star apologized for being so grumpy about the whole endeavor. “I get bad vibes from this place. Bad memories. Princess training involved a lot of strictly enforced reading. They did a great job ruining books for me. You know I didn’t willingly read a single book on my own until just last year?”

“Which book?”

“ _Sticks and Stones_. It’s about this girl who runs away from home and gets raised by skeleton warriors. It’s got dragons and romance and political intrigue. Very fun.”

“Yeah I’ve read it. Loved Bilby the bone thief. Real cutie.”

“Wow. I mean I’m not surprised, but you are very wrong. He’s pretty much the worst character in the book.”

“The misunderstood hero of his own story. Hey, uh, thanks for helping with this. Means a lot.”

“Oh it’s fine. It’s clearly important to you. You know, to spend hours and hours looking through hundreds of books on such exciting topics as…” Star picked up a random book to mock it, but instead a look of nostalgic recognition washed over her face. “Oh wait, I know what this one is.” Star showed off the cover to Janna – _Crescenta’s Splendid Spells - Volume 375_. It was one of the hundreds of Crescenta’s spell reference books that were now scattered haphazardly throughout the library. According to the inner cover, it had never once been checked out, so it was probably just thrown on the pile immediately after it was written. Star explained that Crescenta was easily the most prolific crafter of spells in the history of the Butterfly Kingdom. Her incantations were generally too specific to be useful and too numerous to be studied, but that obviously didn’t matter anymore. What really mattered to Star was that this was basically a journal written by one of her _real_ grandmas.

“You have fake grandmas?”

“Have we never talked about this?”

Janna shook her head.

“You know my computer’s password _and_ serial number. How do you not know about my fake grandmas?”

Janna shrugged. “I’m only interested in exploitable knowledge. Genealogy doesn’t usually pay off.”

“Right. Okay. So… Eclipsa: fake grandma, real Butterfly. We are not even remotely related. Crescenta: real grandma, fake Butterfly. Her mom was Festivia, who was the _original_ fake Butterfly and the first queen who was actually related to me. And apparently literally anyone can be a magical princess with the right training.”

“Aw, even Marco.”

“Yes, even Marco. But funny story: apparently using the wand is a nightmare when you’re not born into it. As in it can literally kill you if you mess it up. So, Marco could definitely have died if he kept using the wand, and same with Festivia. But that was a risk the insane Magic High Commission was willing to take. On a child. Oh, Magic High Commission, you will not be missed.” She lovingly closed the cover of Crescenta’s book and set it aside for later.

Janna felt a wave of anxiety as Star spoke. “Yeah that is… pretty insane. So has anyone actually died from using the wand?”

Star’s gaze drifted away, her eyes moving back and forth clearly wrestling with the question. She closed her eyes and sighed before she replied that yes, she had heard of people dying.

“But then… with Marco—”

“—It takes a while,” Star interrupted. “He was fine. It takes months. Months of constantly messing around with it. Like an idiot.”

Janna wanted to ask Star how she knew about all this, but there was quite the scowl on Star’s face, so Janna figured it was time to change topics.

She pulled a book from one of her neat piles to show off to Star. It contained a vast catalogue of constellations from a wide variety of dimensions. She was pretty convinced that she’d figure out a way to go dimension hopping again one day, and when she did manage it, this book would make a great guide for figuring out where she was. In the meantime, it would probably help in cross-referencing some of her painstakingly de-amalgamated tomes.

Star smiled and nodded, but she was clearly thinking about something else. The two of them resumed their efforts in silence, occasionally pausing when Janna found a neat book that she wanted to exhibit to a clearly distracted Star.

After a couple of hours, they still hadn’t come across anything useful to Janna’s quest, so they took a break for lunch. They cleared the dust off of a study table and set out the food. Janna had taken some time that morning to prepare some grilled bananas and mango chicken curry with a healthy helping of seasoned rice. Star was absolutely enamored with the food.

“Glad you like it. Family recipe.”

“I’m surprised you could put this together in that little kitchen.”

“I’m a wizard with a hot plate.”

Janna’s symptoms had been getting more pressing as the day went on. She rubbed her cheeks to try to ease the growing discomfort there, but it didn’t help.

Star noticed and asked Janna if she was okay.

“Ah, yeah. Strawberries, man, I tell ya.”

Star looked skeptical. Maybe she had noticed Janna twinging with pain occasionally throughout the day. Or maybe she noticed that Janna’s rash was getting darker and more pronounced and – when Janna took the time to acknowledge it – maybe a little alarming to look at.

Star chided Janna, “Strawberries, huh. And medical books. I don’t suppose we’re looking for ancient allergy remedies, are we?”

Another wave of discomfort pulsed through Janna’s body. She curled up a little and continued putting pressure on her cheeks. Her vision went blurry for a moment. She felt angry. Why did she feel angry?

“Something like that.”

Star got a serious look on her face and reached over to take Janna’s discolored hand. “Let me see it,” she insisted. But when she went to touch Janna, something bright and electric sparked between them. Star yelped in pain and withdrew her hand. “Okay that. Janna. That is _not_ allergies.”

Janna guarded her afflicted hand from Star’s sight. “It could be. Are you a doctor?”

Star gritted her teeth. “Just stop. Tell me what’s going on.”

“Okay so maybe – _maybe_ – I might have got a little uh… too deep into some experiments.”

Star frowned. “What kind of experiments?”

“I was trying to figure out that weird black stuff you don’t want to know about.”

Star tilted her head back and rolled her eyes. “O-o-of course. Oh I just knew it – right in my guts, Janna. Why are you messing with this stuff? It’s clearly not meant to be messed with. It’s literally gross black slime! Everything about that screams, ‘Don’t touch me!’ This is _exactly_ why I didn’t want you getting in here! Nothing good is going to happen if you keep prying into this stuff.”

“Okay, well, I _was_ messing with it. And there’s a chance I maybe screwed something up – and again, big maybe there. Probably everything is fine. But if I _did_ screw something up, I should probably find a way to fix it. And none of my research says how. You’d think there’d be a warning in there: ‘Hey if you make this machine that extracts the essence of weird semi-real slime, maybe you’ll get some strange sickness or whatever, so watch out for that.’ Nope. No warnings.”

“You know, I wish I could say I was surprised. What’s this sickness?”

“Nothing!” Janna was startled by how aggressively that came out of her. She tried again more calmly. “It’s nothing. Okay. Just the rash. Which is kind of achy. And spreading.”

“Show me.”

Janna was reluctant, but she did as Star asked and rolled up her sleeve to expose her discolored arm. It was a very odd-looking rash. It had taken on a dark purplish color like a bruise, and, beneath her skin, thin black lines were spreading out like angular roots from her palm.

“Okay. Well that’s not normal. Anything else?”

Janna sighed. The jig was up, she may as well tell Star everything. “My vision gets blurry sometimes. And my cheeks are tingling. And there’s like… weird… thoughts.”

“Weird thoughts?”

“Like uh… vaguely… mean and hungry?”

Star marveled at the rash with a look of grave concern.

“How long’s this been going on?”

“About a week.”

“And your cheeks are tingling?”

“Yeah.”

“Just your cheeks.”

“Yes,” she replied tersely.

“Just tingling?”

Janna curled forward slightly in response to a sudden wave of intense pain. “Okay! Maybe ‘burning’ is a better word for you? What do you want?” She was feeling very stressed talking about it.

Star stared at her, bewildered, a look of troubled realization on her face. “You didn’t… have you… have you been using the wand? No, you couldn’t have… it’s dead. It’s like… super dead.”

Janna looked away. She couldn’t respond, but her silence was enough.

“You _used_ the _wand_!?”

“Only once!”

“When!?”

“Years ago! When I… when I borrowed your spell book. When you first came to Echo Creek.”

“Janna!”

“And let me just say: once was enough. It was terrifying.”

Star was beyond words. She stormed around gesturing at Janna, mouth open, unable to put air to the syllables on her lips. “Do you have any _idea_ how dangerous—”

“—It was only once! And it was years ago! And I’ve _been_ fine!”

“Well Janna, I don’t know! All I know is that last time… the last time I saw someone messed up like this, it was because the wand fell into the wrong hands.” Star stared at the ceiling and took deep breaths. She wiped her eyes before going on. “Whatever you’re hiding, stop. Just… let’s get it all out and let’s fix this.”

Janna nodded.

Star continued, “So this black stuff. Just tell me what you know. Is it Magic? Is it just Magic?”

“No. I mean, I only know what the book said in it. The notes called it ‘Starlight’. It’s supposed to be fuel for some of the tools in the book. It certainly doesn’t look or feel anything like the stuff in the Magic Dimension.”

“Okay. Not Magic, maybe fuel. And, what, is it… _in_ you? Did you _eat_ it or something?”

Janna shook her head and tried to describe the device that she crafted. It was supposed to ‘activate’ the black stuff, whatever that meant. The instructions were kind of unclear. She tried to follow Marco’s translation of some schematic notes in the travel guide, but she had to improvise a little with the components. Swap in some modern human tech, cobble together some bits from the interdimensional amalgam. When she turned it on, the machine coaxed the black goop to arc and glow. “And when I got too close,” she held up the discolored palm of her hand, “That arc of energy jumped into my hand.” She clenched her fist. “And now: weirdness.”

“Yeah I bet ‘weirdness’! I don’t even know who we could talk to about this.” Star clasped her hands together and took some deep breaths. “This looks exactly like ‘Magic burn’. The thing that… They told me no one… no one in Mewni has ever cured this.”

“Cool. That’s like… super what I need to hear right now, dude.”

“Sorry. That doesn’t mean it’s not curable. People weren’t supposed to use the wand without guided training, right? And when they did: deadly Magic burn. They… drilled this into me real hard when I was little. ‘Don’t let your friends play with the wand,’ they said. And the Magic High Commission, being just unbelievably awful, didn’t have a big interest in helping Magic burn victims. It served as a punishment for the wand falling into ‘the wrong hands’. And the victims… well… it wasn’t…” Star’s eyes were tearing up a bit, though she tried to hide it. “It wasn’t pretty.”

There was clearly more going on with Star than she was willing to share, but Janna wasn’t in a state to ask for more details. She felt short of breath. Ashamed. Scared. Seething with an anger that didn’t make sense. She had hoped to avoid coming out with all this, but maybe she had really wanted to tell Star. She wasn’t used to feeling so helpless. She wanted a friend. And it sure felt like Star was being a pretty awful friend right now, basically telling her she was doomed.

Star anxiously paced around the table, lost in thought, and Janna resigned herself to struggle through her meal in silence while waves of pain pulsed away at her.

After Star settled down a bit, she scolded Janna’s foolishness. “You should have told me. About the experiment. About the wand. Maybe we could have done something.”

Janna felt burned up hearing that. Was Star just leaving her to… to just… She clenched her teeth and tried not to think about her dismal fate. She didn’t deserve to be reprimanded. Star’s the one who said she didn’t want anything to do with this stuff. Janna thought she was doing what was right by keeping her friend at arm’s length on it. But whatever! It wasn’t Star’s problem anyways!

“Giving up, huh? Fine. Whatever, Star.” Janna was seething. She left her meal unfinished and stormed off from the table, painfully hobbling back to the mountain of books to continue her search.

Star stayed behind to finish eating by herself, then she sat alone in quiet thought. After a few minutes, she rejoined the excavation. She was digging through the pile with urgent fervor, tossing useless book after useless book over her shoulder, completely ruining the organized stacks they had been working on. Her cheeks were wet with tears.

Janna’s indignation dissolved a bit, and she begrudgingly thanked Star for joining her again. But she wasn’t especially hopeful anymore. There was a growing sense of dread and resentment in her. The chaos in her mind would only let her have one thought now – that she was powerless to stop this.

Star sobbed to herself, “If only the Index wasn’t dead, we might… we might have…” Her lips froze. She turned to Janna and threw down the book in her hand. “Wait.” She dried her face with her forearm. “Wait wait wait. The Index. Maybe it would… ” She approached Janna enthusiastically and shook her by the shoulders. “Where’s your stupid thing? Do you have it?”

“What thing?”

“The stupid thing you made from your _stupid_ book.”

Janna tried to shake free from Star’s grasp, scowling. “Let go. It’s at home.”

“Listen, this stuff is giving you _Magic_ burn, right? So it’s probably _like_ Magic. Maybe it’s _close enough_ to Magic to power the Index. Even if it’s just a little bit, it might be enough to find something useful in here.”

Janna couldn’t believe Star was suggesting this. “Oh so _now_ you want me to mess with this stuff? Even _I_ don’t want to play with it again.”

“Okay well, our options are: we waste our time digging through these books until something awful happens to you, or we take a risk trying to use a sketchy machine to create some weird kind-of-like-Magic stuff and… then… figure out how to pump that into the Index… somehow…”

“Star—”

“—Look at the situation here, Janna. I’m not seeing this thing getting better while we’re in here up to our necks in cookbooks, children’s stories, and romance novels.”

Janna thought about it and figured Star might be right. And while there might not even _be_ a book that would help, there was no way to find out just crawling around on their hands and knees like this. Janna’s pain was not going away, and she definitely felt an increasing sense of urgency with every moment that passed. But it didn’t matter that Star was right or that she was hurting. It was unacceptable that Star might endanger herself for this – that she had put Star in a position where it felt necessary.

“I don’t want… You could get sick too.”

But Star wasn’t backing down. “Yeah. I could. I sure could. But I’ll take that risk.”

Janna looked down at the ground in shame. She hammered her fist into the cover of a nearby book, producing an explosive sound that was more aggressive than she was expecting. “Look. It’s a good idea, okay? But I’ll do this on my own.”

“Yeah, no, that’s not happening.”

“I don’t _want_ your help!”

“Well you don’t have much of a choice now, do you!? Come on.”

Janna glared at Star’s outstretched hand. This wasn’t fair. But Star wasn’t letting her say no.

Star, carefully avoiding the sparking rash, helped a very reluctant Janna to her feet. “We’ll figure this out together, okay? Don’t fight me on this. You won’t win.”

She shouldered both Janna and the heavy knapsack containing the Index up the stairs to the main floor of the castle, then summoned the royal carriage for a ride over to Janna’s place.

The journey home was more arduous than Janna had expected. She could barely stay sitting up straight, and so leaned against the door for support. Every bump in the road jostled her around and caused pain to shoot through her body. Star kept trying to talk to her, but she was having trouble staying present. She stumbled over her words and had to stop talking entirely when her vision blurred.

The concern in Star’s voice grew with Janna’s pain. Still, Star kept encouraging Janna that they were almost there and that everything would be fine in no time.

But when they arrived at Janna’s home, they were met with a disaster. The front door was wrecked and sat ajar, hinges partially ripped out, crooked in its frame.

“Well this can’t be good,” Star muttered to herself.

Star helped Janna to the front door, then Janna braced herself against the wall with one hand, determined to limp through the hallway without help. They cautiously entered the house and found some of Janna’s housemates unconscious in the hallway. The door to Janna’s room was kicked in, utterly destroyed. And when they got inside, they found that Janna’s stuff had been left in ruins. Books flung off the shelves. Bottles smashed on the ground. Bed torn up. And Janna immediately recognized something missing from her desk.

“They took the machine. And my research. Oh man, they took everything! No. No, Star this is really bad. This is really bad. That son of a…”

Janna was shaking, overwhelmed with feelings of helplessness and fury. She stumbled into the room and started digging through her things.

“My computer too! I can’t even track him down now!”

“Who?”

“It has to be Larian. He’s one of my… contacts on that forum. I was showing off my work and… I shouldn’t have trusted him. I’ll destroy him. I’ll _tear him apart_ when I find him.”

“Whoa, hey, calm down. We’ll figure this out.”

Something disgusting had been burning inside Janna all day that made rage feel easy – imperative, even. Her eyes filled with malice as she looked over the destruction done to her research, her projects, her home, and she felt as though all the promises of hope and safety she held in her heart were shattered and empty.

“This is… it’s not… it’s unfor _givable_ …”

Darkness entered her mind and stayed there, roaring for power and revenge. She repeatedly stretched out her fingers to their limit, then clenched them back into tight fists. Ire and anguish bubbled up inside her. Chaos was filling her mind. Reality was blurring. Something was wrong.

“Star… I feel real… weird…” she said in a stilted whisper. But something about the way the word ‘weird’ came out of her… she sounded… excited.

Her senses were fading in and out. She could vaguely tell that Star was trying to ask her who had taken the machine.

“Janna! Come on, dude, snap out of it. We’ll get it all back. How do we find this guy?”

But Janna could barely speak, and when she did her voice was faint. It felt borrowed. Hollow. The only thing that frail voice could squeeze out before she lost it all was, “Find Rose…” She pointed to a loose vent cover in the corner of her room, and then her arm fell to her side, limp.

Now the burning in her face and the aching in her arm grew unbearable, surpassing the threshold of her senses. She was blind with pain. Her back arched unnaturally. The purple of the rash rapidly grew to cover every inch of her body, and her flesh took on a faint glow. Beneath her skin, under the rash, the thin black root-like lines started spreading everywhere. They darted through her entire body like lightning. Intricate geometric patterns emerged as they drove up and down her limbs and torso multiple times, then they climbed up past her neck where they webbed across her face and joined together in two masses on her cheeks. There, where everything converged, arcs of brilliant purple energy erupted into the air, causing her to thrash about and heave terrible anguished sobs. When she screamed, arcing beams of plasma blasted out into the room like dragons’ breath, charring anything they touched.

Star could only watch helplessly while Janna suffered this agony for far too many seconds. Whenever she approached, the energy inside Janna snapped at her violently and pushed her back. It was all she could do to try to stay near her friend and frantically dodge the bursts of scorching energy that Janna was randomly unleashing in every direction.

When at last the outburst was over, Janna’s body went limp, the rash had disappeared, and on each cheek was now emblazoned a perfect, pristine mark – the symbol of a pitch black flame. She collapsed, every ounce of strength stripped away. She felt Star’s embrace before she hit the ground, and the last thing she heard before losing consciousness was her best friend calling her name in fear, trying to tell her she would be okay.

[](https://www.cutercounter.com/)   


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey it's me, the author, growing more comfortable interjecting with every passing day.
> 
> Fun fact: piles of combustible materials like wood and paper can spontaneously combust as the lower layers decompose. Heat generated by the chemical process of decomposition gets trapped and the temperature increases until it passes the ignition point of the material. Then as soon as it's exposed to oxygen: boom.
> 
> As fun as it would be to explode the library, I will _probably_ not be including this element of realism in my story. For the sake of the plot, these books are perfectly dry and are not decomposing. 
> 
> \- AR


	15. Bearing Repetition

Meteora had her face pressed up against the window of her bedroom looking out on the temple grounds. It was 2:01, and Mariposa was supposed to arrive at 2:00. Marco was probably messing something up again. She hopped down from the window sill and skittered into her father’s office to complain.

“Well sweetie, I’m not sure what to do about that.”

“We have a dungeon.”

Globgor chuckled, “Meteora darling you have to talk to people before you lock them up.”

“We could _not_ do that. Let’s throw him in a hole instead. Mariposa could just live here forever.”

“Mariposa has a family she loves just as much as she loves you, and Marco is part of that family. How would you feel if Mariposa locked up your handsome father and forced you to live with the Diazes?”

“Awful. Because Marco would be there. Pay attention, dad.”

Globgor ruffled his daughter’s hair. “You can’t just have someone all to yourself, no matter how much you love them. Just be patient, she’ll be here soon.”

Meteora grumbled and returned to the window to scowl at the road until Mariposa and Marco walked up a few minutes later. She vaulted down the stairs three at a time to wait in the shadows nearby the front door. When Archibald opened up the entrance and greeted Marco, Meteora darted up to Mariposa, took her hand, and the two girls fled up to Meteora’s room.

For a couple of weeks now, she had been aching to see her best – and honestly, only – friend. And now, alone in her room, they could use their real names without being chewed out for it. Her parents would always whine about it when she asked to be called ‘Grobb’. And the other adults weren’t much better. Patronizing at best. No one took them seriously. Marco was the only exception. As much as she hated him for what he did, at least he had enough decency to acknowledge their time in the Neverzone.

“Bork, I have such a cool story to tell you.”

Mariposa sat cross-legged on the floor, eager to listen.

Meteora continued, posing dramatically with her chest pumped out, “I am a superhero.”

“Ooh. What did you do?”

“I scared off some bad guys. It was awesome. They were terrified.”

Mariposa tilted her head quizzically. “How did you find bad guys?”

“They came to the temple. They were trying to steal stuff.”

Mariposa marveled, “That’s pretty scary. You’re really getting strong, huh?”

Meteora flexed her arms, then she excitedly pulled Mariposa to her feet. “Okay let’s play! I'll be the robbers, and you be me, the valiant protector of the temple. _Nyeh he he, the secret will be ours as soon as this deadly bomb goes off!_ ”

“There was a bomb!?”

“Stay in character, Bork.”

“Oh sorry. _Rawr! What do you…_ uh… _ruffians think you're doing in my house?_ ”

“ _Oh no it's the mighty and undefeatable Super Grobb! Run! Abandon hope!_ ”

“ _There's no escape, you jerks. I will crush you with my big strong hands._ ”

“ _No! Not the big strong hands! Please spare us!_ ”

“Did you spare them?”

“No.”

“Oh geez. Are they okay?”

“Bork, please.”

“Oh right. _Sucks to be you, robbers. Super Grobb doesn't know the meaning of mercy! Get crushed! Grrr._ ”

Meteora got a disappointed look on her face. “They ran away though.”

“So you did spare them?”

“Never!” She clenched her fists in a defiant pose. “The next time I see some robbers, I’m just gonna… eat them!”

“Noooo. Grobb, don’t eat people, that’s too scary.”

“I might though.”

“Don’t! They’ll lock you away somewhere. We won’t get to see each other anymore.”

That deflated Meteora a bit. “Who told you that?”

“It’s just the rules! You can’t eat people. If you eat people, they take you away.”

“Even bad people?”

“Yes!”

“That’s a stupid rule. You should be allowed to get rid of bad people if it makes the world better.”

“Well… what if… what if the robbers _weren’t_ bad guys? Then _you’d_ be the bad guy, and they’d be allowed to get rid of _you_.”

Meteora scoffed, “I’d like to see them try.”

Mariposa put her foot down defiantly, “You will not eat people no matter how bad they are, Grobb.”

Meteora huffed, “Fine,” and then she immediately pivoted to something more interesting. “Want to see the room they messed up?”

“Is it bad?”

“It’s pretty bad, yeah. It’s that fun room Star left behind. Totally destroyed.”

Meteora poked her head out into the hall to check for witnesses, then pulled Mariposa along behind her once she determined the coast was clear. Ignoring a multitude of stern warning signs denying access to the stairwell, they hurried up the tower that Star’s old room was attached to. When they got to the top, they found more ominously written warning signs at the ruined entrance to the room, and scorch marks on the hallway floor where the door had blown out. Meteora beckoned Mariposa inside.

Before the attack, the room was nearly empty. The girls had occasionally snuck in to hang out there, since it was easily the funnest room in the temple for climbing and hanging out, but there wasn’t much left to play around on now. The floor was covered with rubble, the walls were cracked with chunks missing that exposed the room to the elements, and the dozens of stairs that led to the balcony and the dome of the ornate turret were mostly broken and unusable. From the scorch marks on the ground and walls, the blast had clearly originated from the only undamaged thing in the room – the sealed closet door.

Mariposa ran her hand over the pristine surface and marveled at it. “What’s this made of?”

“I thought it was just wood. But I guess this is why we could never get it open. It’s got to be something special.”

Mariposa looked up at the ceiling. “Those stairs are toast, huh? No more sitting on the roof I guess.”

“Hmm… I think I can still get us up there.” Meteora sized up the distance to the doorway for a few seconds, then told Mariposa to take her hand. “I’ve been practicing this,” she smiled. Then she grew right up to the ceiling – precisely as tall as she needed to be – and hoisted little Mariposa up to the doorway that led to the roof. “Okay don’t let go of me, this is the hard part.” She took in and exhaled a deep breath, then hopped into the air and, with expert timing, shrunk herself down to pocket size so Mariposa easily could pull her up. Or at least that was how it was supposed to go. Instead she only managed to get down to half size, and her weight pulled Mariposa right to the unguarded edge of the broken stairwell.

“Grobb! What are you doing?” Mariposa could barely hold on, and she had nothing nearby to grab onto.

“I’m sorry! Just let go! I’ll be fine!”

“No!”

“Let go!!”

“No!! Just climb up!”

Meteora was terrified that this stupid little trick was about to end in an unforgivable tragedy. She didn’t have time to argue, and she definitely wouldn’t be able to endure the fall unharmed, so she tried to clamber up Mariposa’s arms. Her efforts caused Mariposa to slip even closer to the edge. Please, she silently begged the universe, don’t let her fall.

She was ready in that moment to throw herself off to save her friend, but she saw the determination in Mariposa’s face and realized it would probably hurt Mariposa’s heart more than it would hurt her bones if she were to let go, so she kept going. Mariposa was struggling hard, red with strain, desperately trying to crawl back from the edge.

“I’m almost there,” Meteora strained, grasping at the ledge, just out of reach.

“Hurry,” Mariposa groaned.

Meteora swiped her claws futility at the platform. If she were a little bigger, even just back to normal size… but she didn’t have any energy left to grow again.

“I’m going to jump up a bit. Can you handle that?”

Mariposa was holding her breath and gritting her teeth. She urgently nodded yes, just do it.

Meteora gathered what strength she could and launched herself up a few inches all at once, and time stood still. Mariposa slipped. Meteora could reach the ledge though. She dug her claws into the cracks in the stonework, then grabbed onto Mariposa the instant she had her grip.

Meteora grimaced. Her diminished form was not handling the strain well. “Quick. Quick, climb up.” She flexed and slowly lifted Mariposa up until the ledge was within reach. When Mariposa scrambled up, she let out a huge sigh of relief, then clawed her way up to the platform herself.

Safe at last, she sprawled out next to Mariposa to catch her breath. As her energy returned, she grew back to her usual size with a pained grumble.

After a few seconds, Mariposa started laughing. “That was fun.”

“That was _not_ fun,” Meteora replied flatly.

Mariposa sat up. “How long have you been working on that? It’s really cool.”

“A couple weeks. My dad says I need to control it better, since I kind of broke a few things when I was scaring off the robbers. He’s been helping me.”

“Well you seem pretty good already.” Mariposa peered over the edge. “How are we getting down?”

“Oh, well I don’t know about you, but I was just going to crawl down the wall.”

“No! You can’t leave me up here.”

“I could, though.”

Mariposa shoved Meteora playfully. “You _wouldn’t_ , though.”

They went out onto the dome and sat down to look at the city. It was easily the best view for miles. The interdimensionally marbled terrain was beautiful to look at, though the two of them had never really known anything else. They tried to point out places they’d been – parks Marco had taken them, Butterfly Castle, Monstertown, the best ice cream place, the elementary school.

“I’m not sure I want to go,” Mariposa lamented.

Eclipsa had already taken Meteora to the school for her enrolment. It was not appealing. A bunch of snotty human kids in a little room playing with blocks and reciting the alphabet. And even in the short time it took to register, she was getting weird looks from both the children and the teachers. “Yeah. I’m not sure we have a choice, though. They treat us just like little kids.”

“It’s okay. I kind of like being little again. Everyone’s really nice. Nothing’s trying to eat us.” Mariposa held Meteora’s hand and squeezed it a little. “It’s scary, but I’m glad we get to go together.”

“Me too.” Meteora was pretty sure Mariposa would be the only thing that would make it bearable. She squeezed Mariposa’s hand back, angry that they had to suffer any of this.

They lay back on the roof and stared at the daytime moons of Mewnearth for a while, silently appreciating the clouds drifting in front of the radiant celestial bodies beyond the shell of the sky.

“Hey, do you remember Janna?” Mariposa asked, interrupting the stillness of the moment.

“Yeah she still babysits sometimes. Coolest sitter I’ve ever had. Did I tell you she took me to a cave once? She even let me punch some weird giant bug that was in our way.” Meteora smiled and shadowboxed the sky.

“Wow, that is cool. She only ever takes me to the taco place. They make little baby burritos, Grobb. _Burrititos_. I love them so much.” Mariposa paused and then her voice got somber and quiet. “Well. I heard Marco talking to Star. He’s real sad about Janna. I guess she’s sick, and in the hospital.”

“Oh. That sucks. What’s wrong with her?”

“Uhm… he called it… magic… uh… some kind of magic sickness, he said.”

Meteora sat up straight, her eyes on fire. “He said ‘magic’? Like _Magic_ magic?”

“Oh, uh, I don’t know. Is there some other kind?”

“No, probably not. Not here, anyways. But…” she trailed off, muttering to herself, “They said it was gone…” Her mind was racing, already a few steps ahead of reality; they could go back.

“I wanted to go visit, but Marco said she was too sick.”

Meteora chuckled nefariously. “Well forget about Marco. He’s an idiot anyways. Let’s go for a visit right now.”

Mariposa nodded. “That would be nice. How are we going to get there, though?”

Meteora tapped the side of her head knowingly, “I’ve got a great plan. Come with me.”

She helped Mariposa down without incident this time, carefully lowering her friend down after growing herself from the ground. Then they made their way through the temple to her parents’ bedroom where Meteora stood in front of her parents’ mirror and took deep, thoughtful breaths.

“What are you doing?” Mariposa sat on the bed and kicked her legs absently.

“Shhh. I need to concentrate. This has to be just right.” She looked at her reflection intently, then slowly, unsteadily, altered her size again – this time, to be a mere seven feet tall. She scowled at her shape, though. She ended up far too muscular and monstrous. But she couldn’t really do any better. She turned around to face Mariposa. “What do you think? Do I look like an adult?”

Mariposa snickered. “No. You look like a big Grobb.”

“Okay hold on.” She dug through her dad’s wardrobe to find some clothes that might fit. Luckily her dad usually took on the same human-friendly shape when he was in business mode, so she managed to find a shirt, a jacket, and some pants that would work in public. “How about now?”

“Hm. It’s a little better. Your face is still like a kid though.”

Meteora looked in the mirror again. “It is not. I look perfectly mature.”

“Okay if you say so. Are we sneaking out like this?”

“That’s the plan. You in?”

Mariposa nodded vigorously. “Oh, we’ll have to be careful though. There’s a police guy on the main road at the edge of Echo Creek that checks Marco’s ID every time we go past.”

“Why?”

“Marco says the police want to keep track of everyone to keep them safe, but I don’t think that’s true. I think the police guy is just a jerk.”

“We’ll just go another way, then. How do we get to the hospital?”

“Hm. I’ve never been there. Oh, but the bus driver probably knows! She goes everywhere in town, and she’s very helpful.” Mariposa patted herself down until she found a pocket that jingled. “Ah ha. Here,” Mariposa handed Grobb a fistful of change that amounted to $6.50, “We’ll need this to get on.”

Meteora hadn’t handled human currency before and marveled at the unnatural precision of the metalwork in the coins. “Why do you have this?”

Mariposa shrugged. “It just ends up in one of my pockets whenever I leave the house.”

“Weird.”

The two of them carefully tiptoed past the room Marco was sitting in. He was supposed to be watching them, but after being chewed out by Meteora for hovering over them when they were hanging out, he had learned to keep his distance while they ‘played in Meteora’s room’. As they passed by, Meteora overheard him asking on the phone about the location of a café in Monstertown. “Uh huh. The Bastion? Where is that? Hold on, hold on, let me write that down…”

Meteora led Mariposa through some dark secret tunnels that emptied out at the rear of the temple grounds. From there, they managed to make their way to an Echo Creek Transit stop. The bus driver gave a strange look to half-monster Meteora – who was holding little human Mariposa’s hand in her huge purple monster claws – but she nonetheless told them which buses they’d need to transfer to in order to get to the hospital. They arrived within the hour – though when they got off the bus, they saw that the Monster Temple was still easily in sight. They could have walked here in ten minutes.

Meteora sighed, “Buses are stupid.”

Mariposa nodded. “They are not great. One day, I’m gonna have a cool bike like Marco. No more buses for me.”

“What? That thing is a death trap.”

“No way. It’s a _dragon_ , Grobb. A dragon.”

“That definitely doesn’t make it sound any safer.”

“Cool beats safe every day.”

“What. No. You’re supposed to be the sensible one, Bork; don’t make me tell you to smarten up.”

Mariposa was off in her own head, though. “I’m gonna name mine ‘Lil Burritito’,” she mused dreamily.

Meteora was starting to feel pretty fatigued by now. Maintaining this form was draining. Not only did she have to concentrate constantly on staying the same size, but just _being_ larger took more energy. She was very hungry. Luckily, there was a vending machine in the hospital lobby and they had just enough pocket change left to get a couple of Snookers bars.

After scarfing down some comfort food, they made their way to the reception area of the hospital and asked about seeing Janna. Unfortunately, neither of them knew Janna’s last name, so the guy behind the counter couldn’t tell them where to find her, and he was eyeing them with suspicion, so they quickly apologized, “Sorry! Wrong hospital!” and left the lobby. They hid around a corner and waited until he wasn’t looking, then they bolted for the elevator. The town of them went floor to floor, door to door, poking their heads into every room, being very conspicuous the whole time and seeing a few things they probably shouldn’t have seen, until at last they found Janna.

They entered the room and closed the door behind them. It was filled with get-well-soon cards, deflating balloons, dying flowers, and homemade snacks in plastic containers. Someone had left a book of occult jokes on the night stand with a little drawing of an octopus creature that said, ‘Love you _deeply_ , sweetie -The Old Ones’.

Some kind of documentary about a haunted house in Oregon was playing quietly on the TV when they approached Janna’s bed. She was wearing a hospital gown, breathing calmly. The machines around her beeped in a steady rhythm. She looked like she could wake up at any moment with enough jostling, but when Mariposa shook her arm, she didn’t move.

“Janna. Hey Janna, are you awake?” Mariposa asked, hope in her voice. Nothing. Mariposa closed her hands and silently mouthed some healing words for Janna.

Meteora was silent, bewitched by what she saw. Large patches of dark discoloration materialized and faded in an unsteady rhythm beneath Janna’s skin. It was hypnotic, like water washing up on the sand. But there was one place where the darkness stayed constant. Meteora raised a hand to her own cheek, feeling for something that longed to return. “It’s true. She’s… she’s got Magic.”

Mariposa broke her prayers and looked up at Meteora, confused. “What do you mean?”

“Her cheeks. She’s got the marks.”

Mariposa turned back to Janna. “What are you talking about?”

“The cheek marks? All the queens had them, all the Magic users…” Meteora watched Mariposa’s confusion and realized, “You can’t see them?”

Mariposa shook her head.

That didn’t matter, though. Meteora was entranced. She saw a future in front of her. A future where she had the power to realize her greatest desire – getting back to where she belonged. Something whispered to her, and she reached out to touch Janna’s face with her fingers, delicately, hesitantly. Everything she wanted. It was right here.

Mariposa pushed Meteora back with uncharacteristic force. “I said _stop_! What are you doing?”

Meteora shook her head clear of a fog.

“What’s wrong with you?” Mariposa was furious, teeth gritted, braced for a fight.

“What?”

“What do you mean ‘what’!? Why are you attacking her?”

Meteora realized the room was different than it had been a moment ago. The machines were not peaceful. Janna’s breathing was raspy. There were red marks on Janna’s neck. Like someone… had… choked her… “I… I didn’t mean… what happened to…”

Mariposa was crying now. Despite her brave fighting stance, she was shaking with fear. “Take me home. Take me home right now!”

Meteora gathered herself and apologized over and over again, both to Mariposa and the unconscious Janna – whose breathing was returning to normal – but Mariposa continued to shake her head with tears in her eyes, demanding to be taken home. As they left the room, Meteora looked back at Janna and felt a tinge of… longing.

Mariposa was silent in the halls and the elevator. When they got out onto the street, Mariposa walked out a few yards ahead of Meteora, stomping, wiping her eyes.

“I can’t believe you,” she scorned Meteora.

“I’m sorry. I don’t… I don’t even remember… did I… choke her?”

“Yes! How can you not remember that?”

“I don’t know. The last thing I remember before you pushed me is reaching out to touch her. What… what happened?”

“You started saying, ‘Magic this,’ and, ‘Magic that,’ and then you just attacked her for no reason!”

Meteora couldn’t believe she had done that – that she _could_ do that. Her heartbeat was pounding away in her ears. She felt a longing for the power she once had, and she knew back in that room that Janna had it – that Janna was… keeping it from her. And part of her said it was impossible – that she would never hurt someone like that. Part of her.

“I’m sorry Bork. I’m sorry.” She jogged to catch up with Mariposa. “I’m really sorry. I didn’t know what I was doing. It was… whatever she has, that Magic, it was getting to me.”

“If that’s what Magic’s going to do to you, then you should just forget about it!”

Meteora clenched her fists and lower her head. “Okay,” she lied.

“You promise?”

“Yeah.” No. You don’t understand what this means. For us. You’ll forgive me.

Mariposa stopped and turned around to face Meteora, still scowling. “Shake on it.”

Meteora shook hands with Mariposa, then Mariposa’s stern face broke into a sob.

Little Mariposa clamped a hug onto Meteora’s like she never wanted to let go, and cried, “I was so scared. Your eyes were so mean.”

Meteora picked Mariposa up and hugged her properly. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. But I can’t stop, she thought. I can get back what they took from us. I can make them pay.

Meteora carried Mariposa on her shoulders the rest of the way home. The tears and anger all faded away to laughter by the time they barreled out of the escape tunnels back into the temple. Unfortunately, just as they rounded the corner to Meteora’s room, they were spotted by a worried Marco who had been searching all over the temple for them.

“Where have you been?” he demanded, audaciously staring Meteora down even as she towered over him.

The girls looked at each other. Meteora was still in her dad’s clothes, so it was probably pretty obvious that they had been out. No use pretending.

“We just wanted to go for a walk,” grumbled Meteora.

Marco was about as furious as Marco could get. “No! No walks! Why would you think that was okay? I’m trusting you two to be responsible when I leave you to play on your own. If you’re going to do stuff like this, I’m going to have to sit with you every time we come over.”

Mariposa apologized and promised they would stay inside the temple next time.

“Inside your _room_! Your _room_! The temple isn’t a playground. And you’ll be lucky if there _is_ a next time. I’m going to have to talk to your parents about this, Meteora.”

Meteora shot a furious scowl down at Marco, growling and baring her teeth and claws, but when she saw Mariposa flinch with fear, she immediately backed off. After all that happened, to stupidly lose her temper in front of Mariposa. She’d never be trusted again. The words, ‘I’m sorry’, were losing their meaning, and when she looked over at Mariposa’s shocked face, she couldn’t bring herself to say anything at all. She ran off to her room, shrinking back to her normal size along the way, baggy clothes nearly tripping her, leaving Marco and Mariposa alone in the hallway. Her door slammed shut and she refused to come out. She silently stewed in her own angry thoughts while she waited for Marco and Mariposa to give up on trying to coax her out, and when at last she heard the sound of the temple doors closing, her rage and embarrassment broke down into tears.

Once she got the power she needed, she’d set things right. Everything would be back the way it should be, and no one would keep Mariposa from her ever again. Not the rules, not her parents, and least of all, not Marco Diaz.

[](https://www.cutercounter.com/)   



	16. “Lab Notes II” (n.d.) pp. 27-30

_Log 320_

After last month’s gaff I’ve been trying to contain the substance more carefully – a process which is confounded significantly by the fact that I can’t see it without the Glass. I wish for an assistant in the lab, but heaven knows what would happen if my research came out. I need more to show. In the meantime, I’ve done my best to repair the lens and devised a more secure mount to hold the contraption while I work. It’s almost usable.

The containment circuit. Simple, I think. Only seven channels. The flow of the Starlight through one conduit has a slowing effect on adjacent conduits, so the energy is stored, running in a loop instead of jumping out right away. It’s akin to holding a bucket full of water at arm’s length and spinning madly. Maybe? No that’s not quite right. It’s more like a water mill that spins the buckets that contain the water that pushes the mill. That doesn’t make sense, but trust me, it does.

I’ve set up the circuit around my lab table and so far, the results are promising. A little slip up yesterday, and all the spilled energy got pulled directly into the loop. It’s still glowing. But the root problem should be addressed. I wouldn’t even have these slip-ups if I could make the Glass more convenient to use. It’s like trying to read through a sheet of wax. That weighs fifty pounds. And is covered in hundreds of long tangles of cord. It was such a blessing when I first discovered it, but now it feels like a shackle.

_Log 321_

I’ve taken a shard of the broken lens to my new friend the glassblower. He tells me it is unremarkable, though he is curious what it came from. I told him I dropped a crystal bowl, and he marvels at how thick the bowl must have been to produce such a large shard. Six inches, friend, but he wouldn’t believe it.

Still, if the material is mundane, maybe the device doesn’t need to be so unwieldy. I’ve asked my friend to craft a much smaller lens, and while he’s completing that work, I’ll devise a new circuit – replace this barbaric tangle of conduits with some of the more streamlined designs I’ve devised. Time to put theory into practice. The new pattern will be sewn into a sleeve so the lens and the source can fit easily into a pocket, rather than being mounted to a clumsy rig. If this works, it will be quite the leap forward.

_Log 322_

A happy accident. I’ve been in bed for weeks recovering from burns sustained during the last experiment. The circuit on the sleeve was very clean, very efficient. So much so that it started glowing in a way I haven’t seen before. And the new lens worked perfectly. I could see the Starlight so clearly, with so small a piece of glass resting on my cheek. Then, tragedy, the source exploded in a burst of light, burning my hand, my arm, and my face. I’m not sure what went wrong. I added a containment circuit to the loop for safety, but perhaps it backfired? Stored and released too much energy all at once? It bears further research.

But now, recovered, scarred, energized, I find that I can see the substance without the Glass at all. Truly remarkable. The stuff is more far spread than I imagined. I’m not sure how this newfound sight manifested. The conduits from the circuit may have been baked into my flesh when it overloaded, substituted the lens of my eye into the circuit perhaps. I wonder if I can replicate this in others. Perhaps it’s time to find an assistant.

[](https://www.cutercounter.com/)   



	17. A Glass Façade

The towering iron-reinforced wood door of Café Bastion creaked open, ringing a delicate bell and announcing the unusual presence of two humans in the otherwise monster-occupied building. The interior was more like a stone castle than a shop, with a variety of tables – some low enough to trip over, others tall enough to stand under. Tall, grey, brick walls were decorated with the colorfully painted canvases for sale. A bulletin board near the front listed items for trade, upcoming shows and crafts workshops, and a few missing persons. Torches lit the darker corners of the room, and daylight streamed in joyously through the tall windows of the storefront. On an interior balcony accessible only by a rickety ladder, a slime monster was playing soft music on a set of resonating glass tubes – jazzy covers of pop songs, or maybe poppy covers of old jazz classics; it was hard to tell.

The two humans looked around like they had never been in a café before. The taller of the two – a young man, light brown complexion, dark hair poking out from under a baseball cap that didn’t quite look right on his head, glasses with thick black rectangular rims – whispered something to his companion. She was a young woman, shorter by nearly a foot, fair skinned, blonde hair pinned back neatly, colorful hairclips, ostentatious yellow-framed shades. She nodded in response to whatever he whispered, and then the two of them cautiously approached the bar.

The patrons of the café paid little attention to the humans. It was rare to see them here in Monstertown, but it wasn’t something entirely unwelcome. Rare a human could stomach monster cuisine, though, frail creatures that they were.

The two placed their order at the bar. When the fellow making their drinks asked for their names, they replied ‘Mary’ and ‘Sue’. Mary, the young lady, leaned over the counter to ask the lupine barista something in hushed tones. Initially he was unwilling to answer, but when Sue slid a stack of bills across the counter, he quickly pocketed the money and gestured over to a torch-lit corner at the back of the café. Sue nodded and thanked the barista for his help. The humans dressed their pungent drinks with a copious amount of sugar, grabbed a newspaper, and squeezed into the seats of a slightly-too-small booth near their target.

“Is that her?” Mary whispered to her partner, conspicuously hiding behind the newspaper, unwittingly drawing attention from the café patrons seated nearby. A pig monster child pointed at the woman and whispered to her mother, only to be hushed and told to not to be rude.

The humans were observing a young septarian seated in the corner. She was probably only in her mid-teens, though it was hard to tell; the species aged slowly. They referred to a notebook while watching her. The septarian girl was doing nothing out of the ordinary –flipping through the pages of a book with care, nursing a cup of something hot, swishing the tip of her tail back and forth in a steady rhythm while humming quietly to herself, completely relaxed and unaware she was being watched.

Sue pulled out a notebook and flipped to a bookmarked page. He dragged his finger over notes under the heading ‘Rose’. “Alright let’s compare.” The two of them went through the details outlined on the page:

  * _septarian girl_ ✓
  * _super condescending _?
  * _hates humans just a whole bunch (with good reason, considering)_?
  * _transactional worldview_?
  * _hums, but not songs, just… tones_ ✓
  * _slurps tea (even when cold. very annoying) _✓
  * _never cracks the spine of her books (get over yourself)_ ✓
  * _fidgety tail when pleased or annoyed (pick one) _✓?
  * _very sarcastic and mean _?



“You know it would have been nice of her to include even one note about her appearance or something.”

“Well it’s pretty close, anyways. Should we talk to her?”

Sue nodded. “No good just sitting here.”

“Okay. So… we just go up and drop her name or what?”

“I feel like there should be a more subtle way to do this.”

Mary gave the girl a long hard look. “Hey, she kind of looks… familiar, doesn’t she? Where have I seen her…”

When they finally worked up the nerve to approach her table, they managed to do so without her noticing until it was a sudden shock to see them standing over her all at once. She was startled enough to spill her drink on herself. “Oh for Seth… my book! What are you doing? Apologize!”

They both raised their hands in the air and apologized sincerely. Sue offered, “I can get you a new one, there’s a book store just down the street—”

“—Typical human.” Rose lowered her brows while looking Sue over, then without breaking eye contact she shook the wet pages out at his feet. “Money fixes everything, right? Pathetic. What do you want?” Her tail was flicking back and forth aggressively.

Mary leaned over and whispered in the girl’s ear, “We know Shadowfire. We’re here for Rose.”

The septarian shoved Mary away, “Get out of my face, mewman!” and Mary stumbled backwards a few paces from the force of it. The pig monster’s kid pointed again, and a few other patrons paused their conversation to look up and see what was happening.

Mary caught herself and tried to shrug it off to the café, “Ha ha, tripped a bit! Sorry. Sorry.” She stepped back up to the septarian’s table and whispered that there wasn’t any need for violence. “Come on. Rose? Shadowfire? No?” The girl was undaunted. Mary turned to Sue with eyes that pleaded for help.

Sue put a hand on Mary’s shoulder to tag out. He pulled out a chair and sat down across from the septarian girl. He leaned over the table and spoke softly with her. “Look, we’re looking for someone named Rose. We’re trying to help her friend, Shadowfire. She’s sick, and we think Rose might know something that could help.”

The septarian girl looked back and forth between the two of them with suspicion. “ _If_ I knew a Shadowfire, I wouldn’t call her a friend. And _if_ I knew a Rose, I wouldn’t talk about her affairs with a couple of shady, anonymous goons in a café in the middle of the afternoon.”

Sue introduced Mary and himself to the girl. “We’re Shadowfire’s associates. We’ve been working with her on some of her research projects – some of which, we understand, closely involved this Rose person.”

“A boy named Sue, huh.”

Sue crossed his arms, “What about it?”

The septarian sized Mary up warily before she pulled out a piece of scrap paper and started writing something on it. “I’m sure uncultured trash like you has no sense of this, but it’s improper to just approach someone out of nowhere. I’m very busy, and I don’t have time for grown adults playing childish spy games and wearing ridiculous fake names. Stop talking to me and go on your way—” By the time she was done speaking, she had drawn a rough sketch of a map and written down a time in the corner. She folded up the paper and threw it on the ground, “—And pick up your trash.”

Sue bent down to pick up the paper, then got up to leave, but before he could go, the girl grabbed his arm. She put a crushing force into her grasp and whispered to them both before letting go, “I have lots of eyes, ‘Mary’ and ‘Sue’. Be alone. Be defenseless.” Then she shooed them away, leaned back in her seat, and continued reading her book – hindered somewhat by the soggy and warped pages which she handled with a look of absolute contempt while her tail swished back and forth in agitation.

As the two humans – or, as the astute young septarian noted, the human and the mewman – left the café, Mary couldn’t help looking back as they went through the door. She scrunched up her brow trying to remember where she had seen the girl before.

When they got out onto the street, Mary tugged at Sue’s sleeve. “Hey Marco, doesn’t she look familiar? I’m pretty sure… isn’t she the girl who—”

Marco finished her sentence, “—Yeah, the one who mugged us? I think you’re right.” He looked over his shoulder warily, “Hey, stick with ‘Sue’, okay? I don’t know how safe it is using our names on this mission.”

She put her palm to her forehead. “Right. Sue. Sorry. I’m not used to this.”

“Now you know how I feel whenever we’re hanging out in your Mewnian digs, ‘Brune’.”

“Okay well that’s a little different, isn’t it? I’m not outing you as an infamous destroyer of worlds and ruining the best restaurant in the Butterfly Kingdom for you forever.”

“Okay first of all, you’re not a destroyer of worlds and you really have to get that out of your head. Second of all, in my defense, I only did that once, and I said I was sorry.”

“And I totally, totally forgive you even though I can only order delivery from there forever now. Because I guess you’re right. Fake names are harder than I thought.” Star held her head in her hands. “Ugh, she’s definitely going to recognize us. She probably already did. Is this even going to work? She totally hates us already.”

Marco put a consoling hand on Star’s shoulder. “It’ll have to. This is the only lead we’ve got. Lucky we have it at all, really.” The journal Star found hidden in Janna’s vent was mostly filled with nitpicky observations about people Janna had interacted with recently – including Marco and Star. Some notes were more than a little blush-worthy.

Star sighed, then collected herself. “Okay, let’s get ready for this meeting. We should probably be prepared for a fight, honestly, considering how things went down the last time we ran into this girl in the dark.”

Marco agreed, and they set off to scout out the meeting place and to talk strategy.

On the way there, they discussed whether or not it would be a good idea to get Tom involved.

Star offered that it was probably going to be dangerous and they could use the extra firepower.

“My dear Mary, if Thomas D. Lucitor, heir to the throne of the Underworld and the face of a corporate empire, got involved in some shady dealings with a monster in Echo Creek, that would probably be a very bad news cycle for him.”

“Oh right. Yeah. I guess I shouldn’t expect him to… yeah. But Janna… I mean they used to hang out a lot, didn’t they?”

“Did they?”

“I think they were pretty close. I mean, you saw how fired up he was when you guys came down to the hospital. And I‘ve run into him there a couple times since then. I think he visits a lot.”

Marco thought on it for a moment. “You’re thinking he’d want to help, huh?”

“Yeah.”

Marco walked next to Star in thoughtful silence for a while before responding, “We don’t even know if this is going anywhere, I’d feel real bad if we messed his whole life up on a hunch.”

“True. Okay, no Tom for now, but we’re looping him in as soon as we’ve got something to go on.”

“Deal.”

The map led them to a Mewnian forest that had been spliced together with a wooded bike trail near Echo Creek. The Magic had had, if nothing else, a sense of where things belonged. Far off the path, they arrived at what appeared to be a forgotten campsite with a fire pit surrounded by partially rotted half-log benches and a rusted out iron grill nearby. The area was shady under the colorful Mewnian canopy. A rainbowed potpourri of dry leaves blanketed the ground and crunched underfoot. From the meeting time written on the map, it would be the pitch of night by the time Rose showed up, and they would be well out of earshot of anyone who might be brave enough to be riding on the trails in the dark. It certainly wasn’t a favorable location for them to meet.

Star puzzled over the situation. “‘Defenseless’, huh. I bet we could still hide some weapons nearby. She can’t really be watching us.”

Marco shook his head, “No, we’re not fighting her. If she attacks, we run. That’s it.”

“What do you mean, ‘we run’? How are we supposed to get this machine if we run away from this lead?”

“Look, if it comes to blows, we’ll either hurt her so much she won’t cooperate, or get hurt so badly ourselves that we won’t be able to help Janna at all. This lead might not work out. We knew that going in. If it doesn’t, we’ll just find another way.”

Star crossed her arms at him. “You keep doing this. You used to be so ready to go. What’s with all this pacifist business these days?”

That attack caught Marco off guard and got his defenses up. “What’s wrong with pacifism?”

“I don’t know, it’s just frustrating. I’m worried you’d just watch if things went bad.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Is it?”

“It is! I’d step up if we were in danger. How could you doubt that?”

“And what would you do? Talk at them? While they stab you?”

“That’s not…” He hesitated, and Star jumped back in on him.

“So there you are bleeding on the ground, still trying to talk them, still trying to pay them off, and what am I supposed to do?”

Marco turned away from her. He was fuming.

Star continued, “This is serious, and it’s dangerous, and I’m terrified. There’s no one else I can count on, Marco. You’re my best friend. I always trusted you to have my back.”

He was avoiding facing her, still collecting his thoughts. “You’re not being fair.”

“What? Because I want you to help me when I need it?”

He turned to face her, looking her over, trying to figure something out. “I am _constantly_ helping you, in so many ways. Is this even about fighting Rose? Or is this about this whole crusade you’re on? Because I feel like this is way more about that than it is about throwing punches in a fist fight.”

Star began to deny the truth of his words, but then she changed her mind. “So what if it is? I still need to know I can count on you.”

He stared at the ground, muscles tense. “To what? To fight people? You put _yourself_ in danger, and then you expect me to jump in, karate chopping everything in your way? We’re not at war anymore, Star. When all that trouble in Mewni was finally settled… It was a huge weight off me when the fighting stopped. Suddenly I didn’t have to keep my guard up all the time. I didn’t have to constantly risk my life or hurt people. I didn’t even realize what kind of pressure I was putting on myself. Fighting shouldn’t feel _normal_.”

Star’s aggressive stance collapsed. She uncrossed her arms, rubbed her hands while she spoke. “The world’s messed up, Marco. I can’t just ignore what’s happening. I’ve spent my whole life fighting. And I thought we were _both_ in it. Together. Back to back. Like always. How can you just watch all this and ignore it?”

He shook his head in disbelief, “You think I’m _ignoring_ it?”

“Well it sure seems that way! All you do is study. ‘Oh, I’m gonna be a big fancy doctor someday.’ Real helpful _now_ , isn’t it?”

“That’s _how_ I’m helping, Star. That’s how I’m fighting.”

“Yeah sure, in like ten years. And what are you even doing then? Just sewing up people who’re already hurt? Meanwhile, the world is basically burning to the ground. Like, _today_ , Marco. Today. We can’t _wait_ ten years.”

“So what do you want me to do?”

Star threw her hands up in the air. “I don’t know! Something! More than this… this whole… ‘keep your head down and talk through everything’ thing. You act like none of the garbage in the world involves you. But you… we _made_ this. You can’t just leave it.”

Marco inhaled deeply through his nose, then exhaled slowly through his mouth in an effort to calm his mind. Star looked at him expectantly. After a few moments of silence, he conceded, “Fine. _Fine_. We’ll fight. If it comes to it, we’ll fight her.” Star didn’t look pleased by his concession, though. A few more quiet moments passed, and the tension slowly drained out of the air.

Marco was the first to say something. “This has been bugging you for a while, huh?”

Star hesitated before she nodded that yes, it had been quite a while.

“Why didn’t you say something?”

“I don’t know. You sounded so betrayed when I asked you to pick a fight with Burles, and I know that was wrong, you’re right, but… I felt like you were turning your back on something important to me. And that’s… I never thought you could make me feel like that, and it scared me… like what if… what if we aren’t… I don’t know, forget it.”

Marco paused for what seemed like a tremendously long time. He looked up at the dark canopy of leaves, listened to the rustling and creaking of the trees as if the wind would whisper the right words in his ear. But it was only wind. He closed his eyes and thought carefully before responding. “You know, we don’t have to be perfect. We don’t even have to be… I mean just because we did this thing to the world… just because we did it for us… We don’t owe anything special to this— to our—” The words just wouldn’t come. He brought his hands up to his face, dragged his fingers through his hair. “I love you so much. And I can’t— we can’t be scared of stepping on each other’s toes or hurting each other’s feelings. It’s not worth it to me. Losing you? My best friend? The person I trust more than _anyone_ to talk with about _anything_? And if I have to shut myself up to protect some stupid idea like a perfect, unfaltering romance – to me, that’s the same as losing you.”

Star stared at Marco intently, a look of uncertainty and fear twisting up her face. “Marco… what are you…”

“You have to tell me. Even when it’s hard, even when it’s about me, you have to tell me what’s bugging you. If you’re hiding yourself from me because you’re afraid of messing this up, that’s not right. You’re a good person, and a great conscience, and I trust you more than anyone in this world to be real with me. Even if it hurts sometimes, I need to hear what you’ve got to say. And you know what? You’re right; I _do_ need to do more, to fight more.”

Star looked down at the ground, still unsatisfied. She scuffed her foot through the dead leaves. “I think I get what you’re saying. I guess it does kind of nag at me, this feeling like it’s real important to be happy with this, with our world. And sometimes it’s not really as perfect and amazing as I thought it would be. Well, not sometimes. A lot actually. It’s kind of a mess, really.”

“I think that’s okay though, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” Star took some time to listen to the wind as well. Still just wind, though. She wiped some water from her eyes. “I’ll try. To be forward with you.” She directed an imploring look into his warm gaze. “You promise you’ll be cool about it? Because I might have a whole lot of stuff to say that you don’t like.”

A loving smile shaped Marco’s reply, “Yeah. I can’t promise I won’t be upset, or that I’ll agree with you, but you and me will always be cool. And I will always, _always_ have your back – even if you throw yourself into a lion’s den or whatever.”

Star nodded. “Can I have a hug?”

They embraced for a long time, squeezing each other reassuringly, whispering love into shoulders.

Star wiped her cheeks and put on a matter-of-fact tone. “Okay. Let’s set out the welcome mat. By which I mean let’s hide some swords under the leaves.”

Marco nodded. They hurried home to grab some instruments of self-defense – swords, spears, shields – and returned to the campsite to prepare. They set a fire in the fire pit before night fell, then sat beside each other holding hands, waiting anxiously for Rose to show up.

At the appointed time, the young septarian arrived with a couple of thuggish friends in tow – a large lupine monster bearing a metal bat, and a muscular septarian – a fair bit older than their young leader – with a knife. Her guards were certainly intimidating, but they made no aggressive moves. They simply crossed their arms, weapons in hand, and stood nearby, waiting.

Rose ordered Marco and Star to their feet as she approached. She patted them down for weapons, then, satisfied with her search, she started in on them aggressively. “Alright, ‘Sue’ and Sue’s friend who is obviously Star Butterfly in a pair of cheap, tacky glasses. What do you want?”

“Hey!” Star crossed her arms and snapped at the girl. “For your information, they _weren’t_ cheap, they were a gift, and I love them.”

Marco put his hands up. “Look, let’s get this out of the way. Yes, this is Star. I’m Marco. And you’re Rose, right? And you are also definitely the girl who mugged us a couple weeks ago, aren’t you? We were very nice about it and didn’t tell the police, you know. So let’s just be cool here. If we’re going to save our friend, we need to work together, okay? And I don’t know what your deal is with her, but I bet you want her safe too, right?”

Rose did not acknowledge anything Marco was saying. She seemed to be assessing whether he and Star were worth her time.

Marco continued, “You _have_ been meeting with her, haven’t you? With Shadowfire?”

She nodded that he was correct. “Which is, by the way, another incredibly stupid fake name. You humans are so inane.”

Star scoffed, “Like ‘Rose’ is any better.”

Rose hissed back, “It was my _sister’s_ name, you piece of mewman garbage.”

Again, Marco raised his hands to try to halt their bickering. “Stop. Please.” He went on, “What did you two talk about?”

Rose replied snidely, “Oh, you know, family, weather, politics, that sort of thing.”

Star pleaded with the girl, “Look. I know you don’t like us. But this isn’t _about_ us. Please. She’s been out for over a week now. Someone stole something from her, something important. We need it back to get her better again. She might… she might never wake up if we can’t find it.”

Marco continued, “Anything you know. People she’s talked to. Places she’s been hanging out. She said your name right before she passed out. You must know something that will help.”

Rose grumbled, “I guess it would be a shame to lose such a valuable source of information. Fine. Let’s go sit down.” She gestured to the log benches around the fire pit.

Once they were seated, Rose told them everything she was willing to share. “She’s been helping me determine where our people have been disappearing to. I couldn’t believe she was so interested in it. You humans are so cowardly and useless, but she has a real hunger for knowledge and power. You can see it burning in her eyes. Respectable. She came to me to trade. She shared her research, her theories. I rebutted her mistakes, curbed her stupidity, pointed her to useful resources. We found a promising adversary. You’re probably looking for a human named Larian.”

Star nodded. “She mentioned him. He’s on that crazy conspiracy forum.”

Rose scoffed, “So what are you here for?”

“We have no idea where to start looking for him, _Rose_. If she _had_ notes on him, we couldn’t find any.”

“They were communicating on that electric machine of hers. Just find him that way. Or is that too hard for you?”

Star was beginning to lose her cool again. “It got taken too, _Rose_.”

“Serves her right. Careless.”

Star scowled and gritted her teeth.

Rose flicked her tail back and forth, clearly savoring the ire in Star’s eyes. “She told me she was planning to meet with Larian soon. She was working him. Getting close. Preparing to strike. From what you’ve said, it sounds like he struck first. Shame.”

Marco stepped in, “Where were they meeting? Did she say?”

Rose shrugged. “As if I could be bothered with that.” She crossed her arms for a moment, tapping her fingers on her arm while she thought something over. “But yes, fine, we do need to sort this out if I’m going to continue exploiting her enthusiasm. Gary!” She snapped at her septarian cohort, “Go get the file and bring it here.”

Gary nodded and sprinted off into the woods.

Rose and Star glared at each other while they waited. Eventually Rose broke the silence. “I suppose you’re the ones who got ‘Shadowfire’ started on all this.”

Marco explained that it was Star’s idea to investigate the disappearances, after their little altercation in the street the other night.

Rose turned to Star with a tiny, begrudging nod, a baleful look still in her eyes. “This – and only this – you have done right. The rest of your life and your line has been a waste, a sickness, and I will not forgive you.”

Star tensed up, but only for a moment before she replied in a metered tone, “Good. Don’t. I won’t forgive us either. Nothing can take back what we’ve done. But you know what, I’m still here, I still have to wake up every day in this world, and I’m not going to waste my life stuck on my mistakes while I still have the strength to make things even just a little bit better.”

Rose sneered at Star, “You’re just like my idiot sister. She was always trying to make things ‘just a little bit better’. And look where that got her. Poof. Gone. Disappeared with the rest of them. For all her work, nothing came of it. Humans and mewmans still hate us. We still hate them. It’s never going to change. You should give up, ruiner. We all know your sins. You’ve salted the world, cowardly put off the inevitable, and set a war in motion that no one can stop. You’ve destroyed us all and there’s nothing either you or I can do now but watch everything we love wither away.”

“Oh what _ever_. Look at all this _worldly_ rhetoric coming from a little whelp, huh? Like you’re doing any better. Just attacking people in the night, turning your back on peace and friendship. I’m trying to help people. I’m trying to make things right. And you know, I bet if you would just work at it, maybe you could make things a little bit better too. Sounds to me like your sister would’ve been proud of you if you’d found the courage to fight for a better world.”

Rose stood up aggressively. “ _You_ don’t get to speak about my sister. Disgusting, cowards like you talking about courage. Betrayers. ‘Peace and friendship.’ The same lies you’ve been spouting for centuries. Worthless.”

“Yeah? All of us? And J—” Star barely caught herself, “And Shadowfire? She’s been helping you, hasn’t she?”

Rose let out a derisive laugh. “She’s been _valuable_ to me. When she isn’t useful anymore, I’m done with her. We have no illusion of peace. No false pretenses of friendship. This is a transaction. And you’re part of that now. Lucky for you. Or you’d be dead, a pile of flesh and bone, food for the beasts of the wood. I’m sick of looking at your idiot face, and history certainly wouldn’t mourn your loss.”

Star wasn’t ready to back down, but Marco was already gesturing at her to calm down, and since she didn’t seem to have anything left to say that wouldn’t make things worse, she sat in seething silence while they waited for Gary to return with the file.

While they waited, Marco put his hand on Star’s shoulder. She reached up to tangle her fingers in his. He whispered, “Don’t let her get to you, okay?”

Star nodded assuredly, “I know. Don’t worry. I wouldn’t let a little brat’s tantrum get to me.”

“That sounds like the shining Star I know and love.”

“I _would_ like to knock her down a few pegs, though.”

“Star.”

Rose scowled at them and told them to silence their disgusting voices. “I won’t stand to listen to your blathering.” And so they waited. For a long time. Too long. Far too long.

Rose’s tail flicked back and forth in an agitated rhythm. “ _What_ is taking him so long?”

They waited for a few minutes more until, fed up, Rose directed Star, Marco, and her guard to follow her back through the woods. But they never left the campsite, nor did they ever find Gary or the file.

As soon as they stood up to leave, the leaves around them rustled furiously. A dozen humans emerged from the shadows and into the radius of the light of the campfire.

The group was startled, but Star was quick to react. She kicked up leaves from the ground to uncover the weapons they had hidden there. “Marco!” she called to get his attention. She tossed him a spear and a shield, then equipped herself with a long sword. Weapons ready, they moved into a defensive position, back to back, prepared to fight.

Rose, seeing their weapons, called them traitorous cowards, but there wasn’t time to bicker. She had her knife out and ready while her guard raised his bat. None of them was going down easy.

In the darkness, electricity sparked. Cattle prods. These people weren’t messing around.

Marco asked what they wanted while jabbing with his spear at anyone who approached.

One of the strangers replied, “Drop your weapons and come peacefully. You’re all under arrest for suspicion of conspiring with a known terrorist. You will be released after questioning.”

“What terrorist?” Marco was keeping them at bay as best he could, but they were getting braver every moment, and soon began swatting the spearhead away.

“Your lizard friend there.”

Marco and Star both looked over to Rose for an explanation.

Rose defended herself, hissing, “They’re lying. This is how they operate. Blame us. Frame us. I’m not going with them, and if you want anything more from me, you’d better back me up.”

Marco was being pushed back by the enemy’s approach. “Star… what’s the plan?”

“I don’t know! We can’t take them all.” Star was brandishing her sword with two hands, slashing it back and forth to keep their assailants back. “Ugh, I hate to admit it, but we should probably run. Just make an opening and go.”

Rose barked at them, “You Seth spat cowards! Fight or die!” Then she darted forward to strike the closest soldier. The knife landed hard and the man screamed in pain, crumpling to his knees. But now the blade was lodged in his shoulder, and Rose had nothing else. Another soldier jabbed at her chest with a cattle prod, but she was able to dodge away just in time. A second jab got her in the arm, paralyzing it and causing her to yelp out in pain.

Her lupine guard rushed to her aid. He smashed the soldier’s prod with a heavy overhead strike from his bat, then pivoted into a powerful swing that landed with an audible crack on the soldier’s ribs. Down he went. A couple of the menacing figures backed away in response, but they still maintained their formation, blocking escape while holding their prods out. They continued jabbing them at Rose and her guard while the guard’s bat swung around wildly to knock them away.

Meanwhile, the soldiers were advancing on Marco and Star – who were both hesitating to strike anything with the blades of their weapons. One of the female soldiers tried to coax them to cooperate. “We’re just going to ask you some questions, kids. Just put the weapons down. Come peacefully. You’ll be home in no time if you cooperate. Otherwise…” Sparks crackled violently from the tip of the rod in her hands.

“Marco…” Star was gritting her teeth.

Marco assessed the situation and took a deep breath. He grounded himself in a proper ~martial arts~ stance, taking power from the strength of the earth and channeling it into his every bone and muscle. He found his resolve, emptied his heart of emotion, cleared his mind of doubt, and quietly prayed to himself, “Grant me the strength bear the burden of guilt.” Then he exhaled sharply and shot his spear forward, twisting it forcefully as he withdrew it from the soldier’s unguarded thigh, leaving the woman curled up on the ground screaming in pain. The others backed off, swearing in disbelief. It wasn’t an opening yet, but it was a start.

From the darkness, a grating voice shouted at the soldiers, “What do you cowards think yer doin’? Grab those dumbbells! You think we have all night or something?”

The attackers steadied themselves, closed the gap from their fallen comrade, and started closing in cautiously.

One soldier bravely leapt forward to tackle Rose’s guard to the ground, and the others quickly subdued the defenseless Rose – leaving Marco and Star at the center of a slowly advancing ring of crackling electricity.

Star let out a war cry and brought down a heavy slash that dropped a soldier to the ground in agony. She lunged at another assailant with a powerful thrust of her blade, but the man dodged out of the way, and a couple of cattle prods darted out at Star’s torso. She barely retreated in time to avoid getting hit. The opening Star created in their line closed immediately.

Marco’s spear found its mark in a few more limbs. The fallen were stepped over, the gaps closed. The pair’s efforts weren’t making much of a dent. At last, a couple of soldiers managed to grab onto the shaft of the spear and tore it from Marco’s firm grasp. He tried to fend off the cattle prods with his shield, but he was overwhelmed by their numbers and was brought down with an agonized cry as sparks of electricity shot through his body.

Star stood alone now. “What do you want!? Why are you doing this!?” She demanded, still swinging her sword, turning around rapidly and pushing her enemies away in a masterful and well-practiced form that left few openings to strike against her. But she was slowing down.

The grating voice came from the shadows again to answer. “Yer getting close to something you shouldn’t be getting close to, princess! Poking a bear with a stick. A real dummy move. Lucky for you, the bear’s feeling sweet on ya and has some real important questions she needs answered, so yer not getting eaten tonight.”

Star was dumbfounded. “…Mina?”

Then Star screamed in pain as sparks from multiple cattle prods tore into her back, dropping her to the ground with the others.

The four of them were bound and bagged, then loaded into the back of a black van before disappearing into the night.

[](https://www.cutercounter.com/)   



	18. Lion's Den

Star woke in a dark room to the sharp pain of rough-cut metal digging in to her wrists, a massive headache, and the muted din of conversation in another room. She was curled up on a cold stone floor, chained to the wall. There was enough slack that she could freely stand and pace a few steps. She braced her feet flat against the wall and made a solid effort tugging at the chains, exhausting every muscle in her body to work at the task, but the wall-mounted brackets wouldn’t budge.

“Welp, this sucks,” she mumbled to herself, trying not to think too hard about how dire her situation might be.

The night before was kind of fuzzy. She had been blindfolded, tied up, and driven… somewhere. No one would tell her where. They’d walked her into a basement, harassed her for a statement about Rose, then locked her up in the dark. Mina, if it was Mina – and Star was pretty sure it was – had not shown herself since the attack. But any organization that had such a bigoted, insane person in charge of anything was probably up to no good. Escaping seemed like a great plan.

Star scanned the room for anything that might help get out of her chains and through the door. The only light in the room was what little streamed in through a small grate on the heavy wooden door. It had the orange glow and slight flicker of torchlight. The cell was mostly featureless. Everything was stone – the floor, the walls, the ceiling. Unusual for human architecture, so the building was probably somewhere in one of the Mewnian slices of town – which was odd, since her captors seemed to be human, and humans were notoriously and justifiably fond of plumbing and electricity. There was a moldy cot against one of the walls, but it wasn’t serving much purpose considering she was bound out of reach on the opposite wall. And there was a tin bucket in the corner that she didn’t want to imagine the purpose of, but probably something to do with the lack of plumbing.

She took inventory of what she had on her person. She still had her clothes – which frankly would have been pretty gross if she didn’t, so thank goodness for that. Her pockets were empty. No phone, no wallet, no notes. Her scarf and those awesome sunglasses were gone – a real bummer. Her shoes remained. Shoelaces might come in handy. She ran her fingers through her hair. The decorative clips were gone, but there were still a few bobby pins left. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. She’d been practicing lock picking with Janna as part of her break-and-enter training. She couldn’t compare with her deft-handed mentor, but she could probably crack a simple lock or two. And the pathetic locks on her shackles looked pretty pickable. This organization did not splurge on security it seemed. She bent the pins into a hook and a tension rod and was about to start picking her way out of her bonds when she realized she wouldn’t be able to accomplish much if she were free in a locked room. And if they found her unbound, they’d definitely take the picks away. So instead, she just spent a few minutes practicing on the locks to get familiar with her makeshift pick set. When she was confident that she could get out quickly, she made sure the locks were secure and stuffed the pins down her sock for later.

There had been two men talking outside her cell since she awoke. Guards, presumably, for whatever organization this was. Probably the one that conspiracy forum was always on about – _The Seal of Light_. The apparently pretty racist forum had taken to singing the praises of the organization’s efforts to ‘protect the country from the rising monster tide’. And if half of what they said was true, then this group was bad news. This was _probably_ the same group Janna was investigating – the one behind the septarian disappearances. What they wanted with her and Marco was not super clear, but Star could easily imagine why they might be interested in Rose. The girl definitely hated humans enough to attack them, so maybe she was a bigger threat than Star realized. Considering her secrecy, her insufferable bravado, and the company she kept, she might have a hand in some bigger unsavory business.

But whatever, Star didn’t really care about the organization’s agenda right now. She had to get out, find Larian, and get that machine back. Janna was waiting, Rose had vital information, and Marco… she’d do what she could, but he might have to take care of himself for a while.

“Hey! Is someone out there?” Star rattled her chains loudly and called out into the hall. “I’m awake! Can I get some water or something? And like, a bathroom break?”

One of the guards spoke to his partner, “Hey, she’s up, go tell Gene.” He opened the door to bring Star some water as she asked and apologized for the accommodations. “We don’t normally keep humans.”

“Okay. First of all I’m not a human, and second of all what _do_ you normally keep here? It’s disgusting.”

“Those lizards.”

“Septarians?”

“No clue what that is, miss. Those lizard monsters is what I mean. The ones that grow back what you break off.”

“… Why… _why_ do you know they can do that?”

“Oh, I thought it was common knowledge. No? Our boys bust ‘em up a lot, so maybe I see it more than you.”

“Great. That’s great. And why do they get locked up in here?”

The man shrugged. “I’ve got a family to feed, miss. I don’t ask questions.”

“Maybe you should?”

“Soon as I win the lottery, I’ll get right on that.”

The other guard returned with instructions to bring Star to another room for questioning. They put her in handcuffs and unchained her from the wall, then they led her down the hall. The building’s architecture changed drastically as they turned a corner – from the raw stonework walls of a Mewnian dungeon to the modern drywall and fluorescent lighting of a human office building.

Along the way down the hall, they were kind enough to let Star use a little windowless water closet, then they took an elevator up to the third floor where Star was brought to a small meeting room in what appeared to be a regular office space. Daylight shone into the room through large windows with plain slatted blinds. One of the fluorescent bulbs clicked and flickered randomly. A phone sat in the middle of the table. She was told to sit and wait in one of the expensive-looking office chairs around the table, then the guards left the room to stand at the door. Star couldn’t think of much else to do but wait, so she spun around in the chair idly while she tried to put together an escape plan. She did not have a great track record with escape plans. Maybe a hostage thing would work? She probably wasn’t very intimidating in cuffs though. And she had no idea who these people would find important enough to consider a valuable hostage.

Before a good plan formed in her head, a woman in a sharp suit entered the room. She was carrying a folder with Star’s full name printed neatly in the corner. The woman sat down across from Star and introduced herself as Genevieve.

“Gene is fine, though.”

Star didn’t reply. She was staring in awe at the folder’s cover. It had a smear of a black and now too-familiar substance on it.

“Star Butterfly. I was quite surprised to see you caught up in this mess.” Genevieve flipped through the documents in the folder. “Royalty. On special visa to attend ECU. It seems you’re doing well for yourself. What a shame to see you tied up in this mess.”

“If it’s such a shame, maybe you can just let me go?” she said, shaking the chains of her handcuffs.

“Just a precaution. You’ve got a reputation.” Genevieve continued flipping through the documents in the folder as though she hadn’t read them already. “Looks like you’re keeping pretty questionable company these days. That activist group of yours likes to stir up a lot of trouble for the people of Echo Creek. You know activism is just one step removed from anarchy?”

“I think that’s the point.”

Genevieve clicked her tongue, “With an attitude like that, maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised you’d end up here.” She closed the folder. “Do you know who you were meeting with last night?”

She really didn’t. But Star figured Rose was probably involved in more than street crime, and Gene was probably trying to get her to say something that could be used against Rose. And while Star didn’t _like_ Rose – at all – she still _needed_ Rose.

“Gonna say no on that one.”

“That’s strange. Because our intelligence shows you spoke with her earlier in the day.”

Star wasn’t sure if Genevieve was bluffing or if this organization had really been spying… on her? On Rose? What was their agenda here?

“Who are you people?”

“Officials. We keep this country safe, and to do that it’s easier for us if you don’t know _exactly_ who we are. Rest assured, we’re here to help you.”

“Right. And what are you keeping ‘this country’ safe from?”

“I think you know.”

Star didn’t reply.

“There’s growing unrest in the monster nests that have infested our beautiful homeland. I know this might not seem relevant to the princess of a ‘magical’ kingdom, but to _real_ Earthlings, these creatures are dangerous, unpredictable, and pose an unimaginable threat to our way of life. Last night, you were meeting with a particularly despicable monster who is at the center of a growing tide of acts of organized civil disobedience. She’s very dangerous. I don’t know if you knew that, Star.”

“I’m sorry, what? You think the monsters are _organizing_? The monsters living in super disgusting refugee camps? The ones scattered thin around Mewnearth? The ones separated from their families and friends and communities by entire hostile nations? Are you insane?”

“‘Mewnearth’, that’s cute. Is that a term your activist friends came up with?”

“Mewnearth is where we all live, we’ve got to embrace—" Star sighed and cut herself off, “—you know what, you don’t seem like the kind of person who cares about ending the conflict.”

“I live on Earth, Star. Billions of humans live on Earth. We aren’t changing that because of a little tectonic catastrophe. And I know you can’t see this, but we are very interested in ending the conflict with the monsters. Now please, back to the topic at hand. What were you meeting with your lizard friend about?”

“She’s not a lizard. Why do you people keep saying that? They’re septarians. They’re very proud and smart and powerful and you can’t… you can’t just treat them like animals. You humans have got to get over yourselves.”

“Funny, you seem to share her animosity towards our people. The meeting, Star.”

Star sighed. “We were just telling stories around a camp fire.”

“Mhm. You don’t have any reason to defend her, unless you are allies. And it would be very foolish of you to ally yourself with her. Aven Callidosus – _Rose_ – she’s wanted for a long list of crimes. Are you conspiring in her criminal behavior? We know you sought her out, met with her for some time, spoke about… interesting matters, I’m sure.”

“You know, I don’t remember talking about _anything_ interesting. Just stuff like family, weather, politics, that sort of thing.”

Genevieve tapped her fingers impatiently on the table. She noticed Star looking at the clock on the wall. “You’re eager to leave here, yes?”

Star held her tongue.

“Just cooperate and you’ll be free to leave. We know Aven is planning an attack, Star. A big one. We need you to help us stop her. People will be hurt.”

“Well that totally sounds awful, but you’re asking the wrong person. I don’t know anything about an attack or a plan or _anything_ about ‘Aven’.”

The woman brought her fingers to rest on the table. She looked down at the closed folder, then sighed and picked up the phone. She dialed a short number, then instructed the voice at the other end of the line to, “Bring her in.”

A minute later, the septarian girl Star knew as Rose was brought into the room. She was bound in a special jacket that restricted her movement, but she still fought against her escorts and even bolted for the door when they let go of her. The guards struggled to restrain her, but they eventually succeeded in locking her to a chair – and even then, she continued to flex and pull at her restraints in a futile attempt to break free. One of the guards drove his fist into her diaphragm, knocking the wind out of her and stopping her from writhing about.

He went in for another strike and Star jumped out of her seat to shout at the man to stop, but she was forced back down by the guards.

“You don’t have any right to treat her like this,” Star scorned Genevieve.

Teeth bared, Rose shot an accusatory glare at Star that silently screamed for her to shut up.

“These lizards are very hard to contain, Star. They tear themselves apart to get out, and then they just put themselves back together again. And as soon as they escape, they get right back to threatening the welfare of decent people like us. We have to keep them in their place – for their sake as much as ours.”

“Yeah? You handle a lot of septarians, do you?” Star asked dryly.

“Enough to know they can’t be trusted.” Genevieve pushed herself up from the table. “Well, I’m sure you two have a lot to catch up on, so let me get out of the way.” She casually strolled to the exit and left the room. The door clicked shut, and the air was filled with heavy silence.

The two girls stared at the table. Out of the corner of her eye, Star could see Genevieve standing near the door, listening, waiting. At length, Star sighed and started the unwelcome conversation.

“They want us to talk.”

“Which, to any sensible person, would be a cue to silence their idiot mouth.”

“I still have questions I need answered.”

Rose chuckled, “Star Butterfly, your stupidity becomes more radiant every time I suffer your company. I thought that pathetic human boy of yours was a joke, but at least he had the sense to stay quiet when they brought him in here.”

Star bit her lower lip before asking, “Is he okay?” unsure if she wanted the answer.

“Oh, I’m sure he is. They seem to be treating you two much kinder than they’ve ever treated my people.”

“Come on, you look fine.”

Rose sneered at Star, “My pain doesn’t show as easily as yours, mewman. Your kind seems to revel in breaking our bones and tearing our skin.” Rose lowered her head and scowled at the table. “I hoped they were rumors, but no, they were truer and viler than I could have imagined. Disgusting.”

“What did they—”

“—No more. No more words.”

Rose refused to acknowledge Star any further, and so they sat together, quiet, unmoving.

Genevieve continued observing their silence through the window for a few minutes, but she was clearly running out of patience. Star heard a keycard beep, and the door opened a crack, but suddenly closed shut again. Shouting came from the hallway. An alarm sounded, the main lights dimmed, and a set of red emergency lights came on. Genevieve and the guards abandoned the door and ran down the hall with weapons drawn.

Star leapt from her chair and to the door to check if it was still open, but the mechanism had already reengaged the lock. They were stuck in there while the building was in some kind of panic. She pressed her cheek up against the glass to peer down the hall as best she could, but she couldn’t see what was going on. But there was a glimmer of hope now. Whatever it was, it had taken the full attention of the guards. If there was ever going to be a time to get out of her binds and escape, this was it.

“Well Rose, how do you feel about getting out of here?” Star pulled the bobby pins out of her sock started working at the lock on her cuffs.

Rose laughed at Star pathetically, “You’re really into this ridiculous spy game of yours, huh? What are you planning to do when you’re free of those restraints? Jump out the window?”

“Well,” Star mused, struggling with the lock, “I was thinking… about broken bones—” Something clicked and one of the cuffs slipped from Star’s wrist. She was silently elated. All that practice with Janna had actually paid off. But she had to keep her cool in front of Rose, who already had a low enough opinion of her. Filled with a renewed sense of confidence in her abilities, she crouched down beside Rose and went to work on the locks securing the girl’s restraints.

“ _What_ are you doing?” Rose asked accusatorily.

“—see, that window there is three stories up. And I definitely can’t fall three stories, being… hold on… almost got it—” Click. Rose was unbound from the chair, but the jacket still prevented her from moving freely. Two more to go. “—being a pathetic mewman and all.”

Rose’s eyes widened with disbelief. “You expect _me_ to jump out a window? Are you actually insane?”

“You’ll just fix yourself up, right?”

“If I survive.”

“It would be pretty _embarrassing_ for such a proud and powerful septarian like you die from a little fall like that.” Click. Another lock fell to the floor. Rose could move her arms slightly, but they were still locked together behind her back. Star was about to start on the last lock when the alarm stopped and the emergency lights were replaced with mundane florescent lighting.

“Have you ever experienced a broken bone? It is an excruciating experience, mewman. I would be happy to demonstrate so you might have a better understanding of what you’re asking me to do.”

Star was struggling with the last lock. It had a couple extra pins in it, and her makeshift tension rod kept slipping in the keyway. Rose moving around and flicking her tail anxiously wasn’t helping.

“Hey, stop fidgeting, you’re messing me up.”

“We could fight our way out,” Rose suggested.

“Sure sure sure. You know the way out from here?”

Rose was silent.

“Oh, you know what, I bet there’s just a helpful map out in the hallway. ‘Hey prisoners follow the exit signs to escape.’ And I’m sure the guards will be pushovers. I mean sure, they had those _very_ painful zappy sticks last time, and who knows what else they’ve got now. But we’ve got _chairs_. Chairs and a _phone_. They won’t know what hit them, right Rose?” Click. The final lock came undone. And there was movement in the hallway. They were out of time.

Rose threw the jacket to the ground, and the two of them stood face to face, free of their bonds, trapped in a room with only one very unpleasant escape. Star lifted a chair off the ground and hurled it through the exterior window, destroying the blinds and shattering the glass with a loud crash.

“We can’t fight, but you can run. Just go. Come find me when I’m out. We’ll figure something out to keep you safe, okay?”

Rose sneered and made her way up to the window’s edge, ripping out the residual shards at the bottom of the frame. She peered down uneasily. “I was entertaining the idea of throwing you down first, mewman, but looking at it now, there’s quite a steep rockface at the base of this building. I don’t think having a fresh pile of meat to land on would make much of a difference.” For the second time, Rose gave Star a reluctant nod of gratitude, then closed her eyes, braced herself, and leapt down. A few seconds later, Rose’s brutal landing was punctuated by stifled sobs that whispered through the open window.

Star didn’t have the luxury of time to peer through the window to make sure Rose was on her way to freedom. Genevieve was at the door, and Star had only a moment to plan her next move. Maybe she could scale the outside of the building? No it was probably just a smooth vertical wall. That’s how the humans do. Maybe the drop wasn’t so bad? No, no it sounded pretty bad. Maybe she could get into the ceiling? But there was nothing to climb on. And honestly, there was no time for any of that. The key card beeped again, and as the door opened, the only thing Star could think to do was to lock the loose cuff back around her wrist and play dumb.

As soon as Genevieve returned, Star feigned distress and exclaimed, “She got out!”

Genevieve looked awestruck for a moment. She took in the room, trying to make sense of what she saw: discarded straight jacket, missing prisoner, destroyed window, missing chair, other prisoner standing in the middle of the room. She told the guards to search the area around the compound for Rose. “She can’t have gotten far,” she insisted. Then she turned to Star, “Tell me what happened.”

“It’s just like you said. She broke her bones and stuff to get out of the jacket. I told her to stop, but she just shoved me aside and jumped through the window! It was crazy!”

Genevieve bent down to pick up the jacket. She clicked her tongue at what she saw, “Star, I expected better, I really did.” She held up one of the picked locks. “A princess acting like a common thief. You’re an embarrassment to your family.” She held out her hand palm-up, “The picks.”

Star shrugged, “Picks? What are you—”

“—Miss Butterfly, we can and will strip you down to nothing if you’re going to behave like this. The _picks_.”

“Fine.” Star retrieved the twisted bobby pins from her pocket and dropped them into Genevieve’s open hand.

“Anything else?”

Star shook her head no.

Genevieve sighed, “If only I could believe you now.” She instructed one of the guards to escort Star to another room for a ‘thorough’ search.

Thorough? How much more thorough could they be. Her pockets were empty. She had nowhere else… to… Oh. Star suddenly realized what was about to happen, and she was absolutely not prepared to deal with it. She grabbed onto whatever she could and struggled against the guard. “No. Nope. No! No, stop, please, I don’t have anything else I swear! Gene, come on, this is wrong! I haven’t _done_ anything!”

Genevieve called a second and a third guard in, and the three escorts working together were easily able to overpower Star. They dragged her kicking and screaming to the elevator and brought her back down to the modern wing of the basement where they left her alone, locked in a small windowless room with an examination table, a plastic bin, and a box of latex gloves. There were instructions printed on the wall that suggested she would be joined shortly by a professional who would be expecting her in an unacceptably vulnerable state of undress.

“No no no… no… okay… okay… ha ha, locked in a little room, cool cool. I can— you can’t—” She started laughing frantically at the futility of her situation. “This can’t be happening. I am _not_ doing this! I won’t!” She banged furiously on the door and pleaded with whoever might be listening to let her go, but there was no response.

She pressed her forehead into the door and clenched her teeth. She wasn’t going to roll over without a fight. She prepared herself to slam into the door as soon as someone entered the room. Maybe they would be thrown back on the ground and she could… run… down the hall… get captured again… Whatever, it was better than cooperating. What gave these people the right to do this? She hadn’t done anything wrong. Even if Rose was some kind of criminal mastermind, just talking to her wasn’t worth being treated like this.

Star hoped Rose had gotten away. There were probably defenses around the building – a fence, guards, something. Even if Rose recovered quickly from the fall, she probably would’ve struggled to escape. But the girl seemed pretty tough. Maybe when Star got out… if she got out… No. No ifs. She had to get out, one way or another. The machine. The Index. Janna. But first, escape.

She waited for some sign of movement on the other side of the door. Eventually, she heard some footsteps coming down the hall, but just as they got up to the door, she heard one of her guards’ voices, muffled through the door, demanding to know, “What are you—" SLAM. Star jumped back in surprise as something crashed hard into the other side of the door, followed by the thud of a something collapsing to the ground.

Then came an obnoxiously melodic knock accompanied by a familiar, irritating voice – Mina. “Are ya decent in there, princess?”

“Yes?”

“Great!” The door slammed open at full force, almost knocking Star over, and a masked Mina leaned in to grab Star by the wrist and pulled her out into the hallway. “Time to bounce! These mooks are persistent and I can’t afford to get caught right now when I’m so _close_.”

Star resisted for a moment. But maybe this was better? Oh who was she kidding, anything was better than getting strip searched by some creep. Star jogged to keep pace with her captor-slash-rescuer. They rounded a corner and ended up back in the stonework portion of the basement where Star had woken up earlier that day. They ran right past her cell, and down a flight of unlit stairs.

“Where are we going?”

“Down! Oh they hate it down here, princess. Gives ‘em the jeebies. Makes it a great place to work on my own little projects. Like you!”

“Me?”

“Oh yeah for sure! We’re gonna get you hooked up to the thing, see some sparks fly, eat some popcorn. I’m gonna love it.”

They rounded another corner and stopped for a moment while Mina fiddled with something on the wall. “Come on, come on. Is it up-up-down-left-right? No. Two rights?” Something clicked and a crack in the wall opened for them to shimmy through. On the other side, Mina lit up a lantern and led them down a steep sloping tunnel at a more relaxed pace, offering Star an occasional warning to watch her head on the occasion protrusion from the walls and ceiling.

The ground was just rough stone now with patches of small rocks and gravel that confounded Star’s balance. They seemed to be in a cave – the sort of cave that Janna had shown her before, where interdimensional things got all jumbled together. The surface of the cave was marbled with knickknacks, bones, machinery, and garbage from who knows where.

At length they came to a larger cavern that Mina had set up like a laboratory. Bookshelves with books, tall jars filled with bits and pieces of… no… no no no… Star looked away. A dissection was in-progress on a medical table in the middle of the room. There was nowhere Star could direct her eyes that didn’t horrify her, and even looking away wasn’t enough; somewhere in the darkness of the room, Star could hear unintelligible, muffled moans of pain, begging for release.

“Mina what… what have you been…”

“Oh this? This is all thanks to you, Star! You took it all away from me, so I’ve been trying to get it back.” Mina removed her mask to reveal a much-changed visage – a chimeric look that was nothing like a mewman, nor like any monster Star had ever seen. Not any single monster, anyways. “These humans! So clever. I really underestimated them back then.” Mina marveled at her lab with pride. “I’ve been putting them to work down here. But they’re real dumbbells up there in management, thinking so _small_. ‘Oh, let’s make monsters into an army,’ or ‘Hey how about we make humans hate monsters _even more_.’ I mean who _doesn’t_ hate disgusting monsters, right princess?”

Star held her tongue.

“Oh, you’re no fun, Star. You monster smoochers just don’t get it like I do. Like _we_ do.”

Star sighed. Catastrophe was becoming par for the course in her life lately, but this… this was so far out of her scope right now that she just did not even want to acknowledge it. “Mina please, I have to get out of here, my friend is sick.”

“No can do! And you probably don’t want to rush back to her so soon. Your friend is the reason you’re here, after all.”

“Janna? What does she have to do with any of this?”

Mina brought Star over to a metal chair and forced her to sit down, then strapped her in so she couldn’t escape. She then wheeled over a cart with a machine on it. _The_ machine. Exactly as Janna had described. Pipes and wires, crystals and circuit boards, color-changing fluids bubbling back and forth, and in the middle of it all, surrounded by intricate runes, was a receptacle filled with black slime. From that slime a radiant purple arc was dancing in the air.

“Your friend had some in-ter-esting ideas about this stuff, princess.” Mina held up one of Janna’s notebooks and waved it around in the air. “After she got blasted by it, she got to thinking it might be more than just a light show. And boy is it pretty. But I don’t want _pretty_ , Star. I want _power_. But I can’t touch it!” Mina waved her hand over the arcing energy, and her hand passed right through it like it wasn’t there. “I can feel it, though. It’s right there. Solaria’s gift, the Warrior’s promise. But I can’t get at it, and it’s driving me bonkers! If I could just get it, us Solarian Warriors could finish what we started and put an end to the monster menace.”

Wait. Solarian. So-larian… Of _course_. Of- _freaking_ -course. “ _You_ were Larian?”

“Bingo! Very smart, princess.”

Great. Well that’s one mystery solved. But now she’d have to play along with whatever Mina was up to here – and Star didn’t like the sound of whatever she was up to.

“Mina, listen, I know this is hard for you to wrap your head around, but I’m not a princess anymore and I can’t help you with whatever this is.”

“Oh but your friend disagrees! Here, have a listen!” Mina flipped through the pages to one she had bookmarked and began reading in a mockery of Janna’s dry tone, “‘The only pattern I can see is the wand. Everyone who’s used it can see the materials. Even Tom, who is objectively supernatural and was even soaked in Magic for days, can’t see it.’” Mina flipped forward a few pages and continued reading, “‘If former wand users can see it, and it got into me like this – I mean it’s just a guess – but Star and Marco – Moon and Eclipsa and even Meteora – we’re probably all vulnerable to this stuff. I don’t think it’s something I want to test. I just want this to be over. But something in me won’t let me tear this thing apart.’” Mina flipped forward another couple of pages. “‘Today Star is helping me find a book that might help get rid of this rash. Maybe with it gone, I can finally bring myself to destroy the machine – though, imagine what this power could do. If I could just get it working properly, get Star on board, maybe we could even portal again. Imagine all the secrets I never got the chance to uncover – mine for the taking.’ See princess, it’s pretty clear! Sparky bits go in you, and then poof: everything goes back to how it should be.”

Star was numbed by Mina’s recounting of Janna’s journals. She stared down at her chest while she spoke, “So, what, you want me to use this whatever-it-is on you? I don’t even know the Solarian Warrior spell. And you read Janna's notes, Mina. This stuff isn’t even Magic. It probably can’t even _do_ spells.”

Mina shrugged, “I know Solaria’s spell is rattling around in that noggin of yours somewhere. I’m sure you can dig it out with the right motivation. And luckily I brought just what the doctor ordered! See, I didn’t expect ya to be super keen on all this, so we got your boy toy over there squirming to keep you on task.” Mina gestured to a dark part of the room – the place Star had been trying to ignore, where the muffled moans were coming from.

Star jumped in her chair, pulling on her bindings loudly. “Marco!?”

A muffled ‘Star’ came back in response – a sound she realized she had heard multiple times since entering the room without understanding it.

Star struggled against her restraints, then commanded Mina to let her go. “If you don’t free us this _instant_ , Mina, when I get out of this, I will tear you and everything in this building apart.”

For a flash of a moment, Star’s mind was rattled by the thought that she had never sounded more like her mother. It wasn’t a pleasant realization.

Mina pointed at the machine with her thumb, “Not until you do your thing, princess.”

Star stared down the machine’s dancing light. She wasn’t sure what she had planned to do with it once she got it. Not this. Janna didn’t want this. Star was going to find some way to get that power into the Index, but she had no intention of taking that power herself or using it for anything else but saving Janna. And now, to get out, to save herself, to save Marco, she had to power a Solarian army? Was it worth it? Could the humans deal with Solarian Warriors? Would they even try? Probably not until it was too late, not until the monsters were gone and the Warriors’ attention turned toward eradicating the human race.

“Mina I can’t do this. I literally cannot do this. It’s _not_ Magic, I don’t _know_ the spell, and it’s poison! It’s literal poison! This stuff is why Janna is sick in the first place.”

“Hm yes very interesting. Except I don’t care! Do it anyways, or your boy dies! And we’ll go after your friend next! And your family! You can’t stop this, Star, we’re big now, real big, and we can make a public enemy out of anyone we want. We can start _wars_. We can make people _disappear_ like it’s nothing. And ‘Queen Moon Outed as Monster Sympathizer’ is a pretty good headline to get the humans riled up, don’t you think?”

Star clenched her fists and bared her teeth at Mina. No person in the world had ever made her feel so disgusted. To even share the air with this person was an insult. That they were the same species was disgusting. But it was obvious now that she didn’t have a choice. The best she could hope for was that maybe – maybe – Janna was right. Maybe she could use it to portal away, save Marco, steal the machine and the books… or maybe she could just destroy Mina…

Star relaxed her posture and agreed to Mina’s demands, “You’re playing with fire here, Mina, but fine, I’ll do it.”

“I knew you’d see the light eventually.”

Mina undid all of Star’s restraints. Star stood up straight and flexed her arms. It felt good to be free again. She thought warm thoughts at Marco, and longed for his embrace. You don’t deserve this. I’m sorry. I’ll get us out of here.

She approached the machine. She could feel it. It was just like Mina said – it felt like… power, like a power that wanted to be used, that wanted to flow through something, and it felt cruel to leave it alone like that. She raised her hand to touch the arc, expecting it to jump into her as it had jumped into Janna. But it didn’t. Instead it pushed her back with a painful spark. She yelped in pain and looked at Mina spitefully, but Mina didn’t seem to notice the spark and just looked on in anticipation, clapping her hands quietly. Star planted her feet firmly and reached out again. Again, it sparked at her, but she endured the pain with gritted teeth, growling at it. It was pushing her back with enough force to hold her in place, but the cart wasn’t moving at all.

The pain was intense. She couldn’t restrain her scream any more. Why did it resist her like this? She relented after a good thirty seconds of trying and failing to force her hand into the arc, panting and cradling her tender hand.

“I can’t… I can’t reach it, Mina. I can’t do this.”

“Sucks for you, princess!” Mina turned from Star and bellowed at someone in the shadows to, “Kick it up to ten.” Marco’s muffled screams got much louder and much more frequent.

“Mina! Stop! Stop, please, I’ll keep trying. I’ll keep trying, okay?”

Mina called out for the torture to stop.

Star held her breath and focused on ignoring the pain. She bit her cheek hard to put her mind there instead, then she reached out her hand and stepped forward. A voice inside her grew louder and louder, demanding that she stop, insisting that she didn’t want this, that it was poison, that it was a poison on the world, and she would pay dearly if she unleashed it. And then she knew why the thing was pushing her back.

She spoke over that resistant voice, assuring herself that she was in control, that she was ready, “I need this. I _want_ this. I can _control_ this. And I _will_ have it.”

And as she spoke, as she embraced the power of those words, the threatening voice’s confidence was broken, its warnings silenced, and the grip that had been holding her back loosened. She lurched forward and seized the light in her grasp.

And then.

Darkness.

[](https://www.cutercounter.com/)   


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, it's me, the author. If you've been following this story every week, first of all, wow! That's pretty cool. I am humbled. Thanks for your interest. [Send me a message some time.](https://aphantaray.tumblr.com/) I crave validation. Second of all, you will perhaps be saddened to hear that next week I am hoping to take a break from updating this particular story. Because gosh dang it, putting Star through the wringer every week is getting kind of depressing and I would like nice things to happen to her for once. With that in mind, I'm hoping to put out a [shorter stand-alone piece of fluff called Star Chef about Marco teaching Star how to cook set a year prior to the events of Starlight Justiciar](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20346886/chapters/48246256), so check that out if you're into that kind of thing I guess? Then updates will resume on this story as before unless school really gets me right in the free time. But when has that ever happened to an artist, right? Ha ha ha...
> 
> \- [AR](https://aphantaray.tumblr.com/)


	19. Dreamer

Star realized she had been, for quite a long time now, looking very intently at a collection of marbles that were suspended in the dark. They were gathered as if in worship around one central marble that shimmered beautifully in the darkness – blue and green, swirling with white, its shadows speckled with points of light.

She reached out to pluck it from the air, to keep it safe. It needed to be kept safe. She knew this one thing more than anything else. But it was out of reach, far from where she thought it ought to be. Still, she held out her arm, fingers curled lovingly around the sphere’s profile, imagining it was in her care.

A warm voice spoke to her, as it had been speaking to her for a while now, though she was only hearing it now for the first time, “Hello Star.”

“Hello,” she replied, comfortable with the unseen stranger, safe. Her own voice was not coming from inside her, but was instead echoing from somewhere far away. The delay between thought and sound slowed her speech as her own words interrupted her. “Why am I here?” she asked, not so much out of curiosity, but because the sudden return of sound to her mind felt novel and she wanted to hear something in the silence.

“Knowing you, I would imagine it’s because you want to be here.”

She nodded and continued marveling at that swirling gem in the dark, “I know this.”

“You do.”

Star paused for a moment to take in more of the thing’s increasingly familiar features, then she realized, “I _made_ this.”

“Sure, I suppose you can take credit for that.”

An uncountable silence passed before she spoke again. Her mind was not thinking thoughts. Just observing, knowing, quiet. She felt underwater, removed from her senses. “This is a dream.”

“Yes.”

Star tried to feel around in herself for something, for some way to wake up, for some way to move forward from this moment, but it wasn’t there. “Not my dream?”

“No Star, this is all me.”

“Why?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Just figured I’d like something to watch while I wait.”

“What are you waiting for?”

“The end.”

“Of the dream.”

“Yes.”

That made sense. Of course you would have a dream while you wait for the dream to end. In the back of her mind there was something that felt a little wrong with that answer, but Star wasn’t ready to address it, so she returned her focus to her newfound ward. “It’s so small,” she mused, admiring the thing that she began to understand was a place she lived. “No. No, it isn’t small at all. It’s very large. Very large. And sad. Oh. It’s very sad, isn’t it? I wish I could cheer it up.”

“You _do_ wish for that. Quite a lot actually. It’s remarkable to watch. I’ve never seen someone with so much desire for change and so little desire for power. I’m not sure how you imagine you’ll do anything at all like that, but your kind always seems to find a way.”

“Our kind. Butterflys? No, you mean something else.”

“I like to call you mundane, but yes, Butterflys, humans, mewmans – whatever you’ve taken to is fine enough.”

“You made us.”

“Sure, I suppose I can take credit for that.”

Star remembered now how very little she enjoyed speaking with cosmic entities. “You made us, and you watch. We suffer, and you watch, is that it?”

“You also radiate joy sometimes. I’d say that happens more often than the suffering on average, honestly. But yes, I watch it all.”

Star was beginning to awaken to her surroundings, and she realized they were very much not present. She was surrounded by void, somewhere outside her universe. There were no stars, but she could still see them. She could see all the stars in all the universes that ever existed. But they weren’t here. “You called me here. Why?”

“Oh, I just find you interesting, Star. I was curious what you would do with that thing you think you made there – if you would destroy it or cradle it in your arms. It’s caused so much pain lately.”

Star realized that she _could_ destroy it. She could destroy it as easily as she could freeze it or reverse it or create it all over again, as easily as she could blink her eyes or wiggle her nose.

“Oh good, you noticed. Yes, one of your kind was very close – so _very_ close to realizing that too. Shattered a whole plane of existence in a tantrum, then tried to forget about it. She thought it couldn’t be undone. The guilt ate her mind.”

“Skywynne. I remember reading that. What terrifying power.” Star looked at her hands mournfully, “I don’t want this.”

“Yes, there it is. So unusual. No one has rejected my gifts so vehemently as you. Unspeakable power in front of you, and you want to turn away from it before you’ve even touched it. Most people have to break something before they get this way.”

“I’ve broken a lot of things. I don’t know if I’m as special as you think.” Star beckoned Mewnearth towards her until it was more the size of a pillow than a marble. She wanted to watch it closely, but it still remained far out of reach. She revolved around it, admiring its surface, perceiving the life there, a constantly flowing and ebbing tide of energy, and yet despite its cohesion, it was still a discordant mess of discrete, isolated points moving in utter, self-absorbed chaos. She remembered she had important work to do there.

The voice in the void seemed to know her intentions. “You would rather struggle for years to make a few people a little bit happier than rewrite the whole world in an instant.”

Star wasn’t ready to consider exerting this unspeakable power on the world. Or maybe it was the world that wasn’t ready. “I don’t know what I would change it to that would make it better.”

“You could erase greed and malice, put kindness at the front of everyone’s mind.”

Star imagined a world that fit those parameters, but it still wasn’t the world she wanted to see. “I think people would still find a way to twist that up. Maybe kindness is keeping people with their own kind. Maybe kindness is ending lives to spare pain. Maybe kindness is stealing just a little bit from a lot of people to make everything ‘better’.”

“That’s true. People are very good at complicating simple things.”

Days passed while she observed the world. How many days, she couldn’t count. What she saw, she lost. Things moved strangely here.

Star wiped silent tears from her eyes. “Have you seen a world that wasn’t full of hurt?”

“Oh, yes. All the empty ones seem fairly harmless.”

“One with people?”

“No. That’s not really how people are.”

Star nodded. She watched and she knew it was true. “I can’t change them.”

“No, not really.”

“It wouldn’t be right, I mean. We need to change ourselves.”

“Your kind doesn’t have that power.”

Star shook her head mournfully, “No, you didn’t give us that power, did you? But I know we’ll find it. We always seem to find a way. A way forward. A way to be better. Even just a little bit.”

While she beheld the planet, she perceived a solitary cry that rang crystal clear, piercing a cacophony of billions. It was a voice she remembered from a time that seemed so very long ago. And though the voice wasn’t calling for her, she knew she was the only one who could answer it. She had to return. She wasn’t done yet.

“Hey, I have to go. I think my friends needed me back there.”

“Of course. Come back whenever you feel like it.”

With a wave of her hand, Star set the world back as it was before she woke in this place, then she took a step out of the darkness.

[](https://www.cutercounter.com/)   



	20. Awakening

Star returned from the dream in a haze. She found herself collapsed on the floor of the now-empty laboratory. Mina was gone. Marco was gone. The machine was gone. She was alone in the dark – but even the dark was gone. Her body was glowing brilliantly, a golden hue that sent shadows running as she walked back through the cave to face her captors. Sparks crackled all over her body, jumping to any surface that got too close. But they didn’t burn, they merely imbued some light into whatever they touched, leaving each spot glowing with that same golden radiance. The ground and walls behind her glittered like a field of stars.

But this wouldn’t last. Janna was right – this wasn’t Magic at all. It had no peace, no order, no cohesion. It skittered around her body like pins and needles, trying to escape at every opportunity. But despite that, it was awakening something in her that felt awful – the same promise of power that Magic offered so many years ago. She tested her control of it with a few small spells, but they just fizzled in her hands. A problem for later.

While she navigated the caves, she concentrated on containing the energy that was sublimating out of her body. The best she could do was restrain the erratic arcs. She couldn’t stop glowing, bleeding power into the air. It was a slow bleed, and the pool of power inside her felt pretty substantial, but if this held out for even a couple of hours, she’d be lucky. And with Mina and the machine gone, she probably wasn’t going to get a chance like this again.

The haze of the dream slowly cleared away, replaced by an urgent sense of purpose. Now or never, she had to save Janna. She picked up her pace and ran toward the secret door at the top of the cave. When she got there, she found it was sealed again. But with all this energy twisting around in her… It was definitely enough. If she could just guide it a bit and blast it all at the door, the door would definitely not exist anymore. But as cool as that would look, she was worried she’d lose control and waste it all. She needed to ration this power carefully.

She traced the wall with her fingers until she found the seam of the door. “Okay, let’s uh… let’s give this a shot,” she mumbled to herself, as reassuringly as she could manage. She’d read and practiced thousands of spells in her childhood. She did not remember most of them or do many of them _well_ , but she knew bits and pieces. There was a little one she used for cracking locks sometimes – as a young princess is wont to do while exploring dungeons. In her prime, she wouldn’t even need to utter the words, but now… she tried to cast the spell through sheer force of will, but it wasn’t happening. This ‘Starlight’ stuff – she thought that’s what Janna called it – it might not even be able to _do_ spells, but if it had any chance of working, she figured it would be best to line the stuff up properly by going through all the intricacies of the full invocation.

With her finger, Star traced a circle of runes and a sigil in the shape of a key on the wall, then whispered a longform spell into the crevice, “ _Little secrets in the dark, little shackles hold them fast, little tendrils find the mark, Little Lock Buster Blast_.”

From where Star’s finger hovered delicately over the sigil, vines of light spread along the wall, creeping into the crack in the door, seeking after the locked bolt – but after a few moments, the tendrils hesitated, shuddered, and fizzled into nothing with a snap that pushed Star’s hand back violently.

Star grumbled and shook the pain out of her hand. Okay, not great, but at least _something_ happened. This felt like trying to pick up a bike after four years – a bike that was a few inches too tall. With backwards handlebars. And no brakes.

She took a deep breath and tried to feel out the chaotic energy in her body for anything familiar before repeating the spell. “Alright, spell, let’s try this again. Find the bolt. Open the door. _Little Lock Buster Blast_.” Again, radiant vines crawled along the wall, and again they disappeared with a painful snap.

“Ow!” Her hand recoiled from the pain. It wasn’t working, but blasting the door wasn’t a safe option. She tried again to find the secret mechanism for unlocking the door, but it was too well-hidden. It was either unlock the door by spellcraft, or risk losing everything with a huge uncontrollable blast. She had to keep trying.

Star tried to push past the distracting tingling in her body and feel for something else, for the shape of the flow of energy through her body – once so familiar that she could just conjure spells on intuition alone. She placed her hand over the arcane symbols she had inscribed on the wall and tried again to push her power into the spell. A slight glow, but nothing else happened. She just couldn’t get the hang of it. Something was holding her back.

“Come on! Work with me here! Open the **fre̱͗å̳̹̿k͇̟͆ǐ͟ň͔̭̔g̢̋ͅ ͍̈́do̳̤̍̉or**!” Her voice rumbled a bit while she spoke. She slammed her fist into the wall, which, to her surprise, caused a surge of energy to pulse into the key sigil and its runes. In the blink of an eye, the vines snaked into the into the opening to seek out the lock, followed promptly by a small burst of light exploding from the crack, shattering the locking mechanism and pushing her back a bit with an unexpectedly large blast of sweet-smelling air. The spell worked. A shiver crawled up her spine and a rush of endorphins flooded her mind. The nostalgic sensation of arcane power flowing through her was unpleasantly euphoric. She flexed her hand, trying to burn the feeling of her success into her mind for next time.

“Okay. Good. That’s better.”

Star pried open the smoking, damaged door, then ran up the layers of the building until she arrived at the hallway with the room Mina had ‘rescued’ her from. She wondered why Mina had just left her down in the cave after all that. That dream down there… it felt too surreal, but… had she really left the planet? She tried to assess the power at her disposal, and it certainly didn’t feel like enough to open a portal or to teleport very far.

The hallway was empty, so she hurried towards the elevator in the modern wing of the basement. There was no use sneaking around considering she was lit up like a little sun. Along the way, she noticed a number of the holding cells were boarded up and all of them were empty. There were signs that the walls had been damaged recently. Star ran her hand over the deep gouges in the walls and hoped that this was some sign of Marco’s daring escape, but she didn’t have time to tear the building apart looking for him. She had to trust that he could take care of himself. For now, anyways. He’d understand.

She spotted a staircase nearby with a red _EXIT_ sign overhead. “Huh. I guess they _do_ have the exits marked. I owe Rose an apology.”

She ran up a flight of stairs to the ground floor and slammed the fire door open. An alarm blared. She stepped outside and took in the layout of the courtyard. There was still light in the sky, so either she wasn’t unconscious for very long, or she had been out of commission for some unknown number of days. Considering the circumstances, she wasn’t sure which option made more sense.

The yard was surrounded by tall concrete walls with razor wire looped around the top. The front gate was guarded and locked, and one of the guards there was already running over to apprehend her, shouting at her for opening the fire door.

Okay so. No blasting. Too wasteful. Maybe a jumping spell? A climbing spell? Could she fly? She’d never had to meter her power before, and she didn’t really have any time to puzzle it out or to try to remember the longform incantations for any useful spells. So. How about just no spells? It was only one guard. He’d have a keycard. She’d just do what she knew best – fight.

But as she braced herself to go at it, the energy bleeding off of her reacted to her will. It swirled and tightened around her arms and legs, and when it did, she felt extremely light. She hopped from one foot to the other and threw out a few practice punches, and she was moving with an alarming amount of speed and force. She wasn’t sure how she was doing it – or if _she_ was doing it at all – but it felt pretty exhilarating.

She clenched her teeth and hunkered down like a runner at the starting block, told herself she could definitely handle this, then sprinted toward the guard in a streak of light, hitting him hard with the full force of a leaping lariat that slammed the man straight into the ground before he could even pull out his weapon. A tiny voice inside her cheered exuberantly about how cool that must have looked, but she had no time to celebrate. She ripped the security badge off the winded guard’s uniform and, still supercharged for a fight, bolted for the gate.

Another guard had remained in the security booth. From behind the glass, he had his gun drawn on Star as she approached.

“Stand down! On the ground!”

“Or…” She raised her hand in the air, letting the light spark violently in a show of power, “You could open the gate, and I won’t have to blast you.”

“On the _ground_!” The guard shouted again, unlatching the safety of his weapon.

Star grumbled, “I don’t have time for this.” She dashed out of the man’s sight and heard a bullet fly over her shoulder. The fire alarm was already drawing people out of the main building into the yard now, and if she wasn’t drawing enough attention burning brighter than daylight in the courtyard, the sound of a gunshot was sure to rile up the rest of the staff. With uncanny alacrity, she shattered open the locked door with a kick and slammed the guard’s head into the window, fracturing the glass and knocking him out. She tapped the stolen security card against what she hoped was the gate control and was relieved to see the gate slowly rolling out of the way.

She ran out of the booth and squeezed through the opening in the gate, then she bolted for the woods that surrounded the compound. She sprinted hard, each step launching her forward with a force that sent trees rushing past at dangerous speeds. She hoped to find a hill or a road or a landmark – anything she could use to orient herself to get back home. After a few minutes and just as many miles, she stumbled out of the woods, leapt down from a ledge of rocks, and found she was near a road on the outskirts of town. A bus stop waited in front of her, and against all odds, an Echo Creek Transit bus pulled up just as she was catching her breath.

She weighed her options. Empowered or not, her legs wouldn’t last much longer at this pace. She’d have a rough time making it home by foot, and it would probably save time and energy to hitch a ride. Plus, she had no idea where home even _was_ from here.

She caught herself in the reflection of the door when the bus stopped. She looked… terrifying. Her clothes were a mess – still torn and filthy from the fight before she was captured. Her eyes were filled with pale yellow flame. Streams of energy snaked along her skin, occasionally crackling and peeling off the tiny vestigial wings on her back in the vague shape of butterfly wings. And even against her glowing flesh, the long-faded hearts on her cheeks shone and sparked with a blinding white light.

The doors opened and Star stepped onto the bus. “Hi,” she politely greeted the bus driver – who nonchalantly dropped her sunglasses over her eyes to shield herself from Star’s brilliance, “How far to Butterfly Castle?”

The bus driver, apparently unconcerned with the bizarre display in front of her, told Star it would be about half an hour. Plenty of time, Star figured, as long as she could conserve her energy. She started to the back of the empty bus, but the bus driver stopped her and tapped the fare collector. Star turned out her empty pockets and shrugged pleadingly, but the bus driver refused to move without the fare. Star threw her head back and rolled her eyes. She held out her empty hand, then failed a few times to draw the sigils and recite the incantation for a spell of _Sugar Baby Coins_. The bus driver watched and waited, unamused.

After a valiant struggle, Star managed to summon a penny. It fell out of nothing into her palm, then disintegrated almost immediately, much to Star’s frustration. She adjusted herself a bit, trying to remember how she felt down in the cave when she punched open that lock. She put more of herself into it, and a deformed nickel appeared. Then a normal dime. Soon, quarters started forming a pile in her hand. And when at last, utterly exhausted by the effort, she had enough for the fare, she dropped the glowing counterfeit coins into the receptacle. The bus driver was satisfied, and Star slumped down in a seat at the back corner of the bus. The driver adjusted her mirror to avoid the glare, closed the door, and continued her route.

Patrons slowly trickled onto the bus with every stop. They all avoided sitting near Star – which made sense. She looked like a glowing mess – celestial and vagrant all at once. A few of them took pictures, to which she groaned, “Hey, could you not?” but that didn’t seem to deter anyone.

While she waited for the bus to reach the castle, she worked at refining her containment of the light. Conjuring bus fare took a lot more out of her than she hoped. Apparently causing energy to turn into matter was an inefficient use of this power. Good to know. And now she was left worrying if what she had left would be enough.

She practiced pushing energy back and forth between her hands. She wasn’t sure how she was going to power the Index, but it would probably be something like this. Or like that? Or uh… maybe just some spells would do it? She’d figure it out. She didn’t have a choice.

Riding the bus was normally a chore, but today she was relieved to finally have some peace to put together what happened. She’d really done it. She’d taken the power from the machine, and then… what? Had she really escaped to that dream space? And what was up with that? She felt like a few lifetimes had passed by while she was there. It certainly didn’t feel real. She probably just blacked out while she was going along with Mina’s plan, had some weird visions. But then there would be no reason for Mina to just _leave her_ there, right?

Whatever happened, Mina must have been pleased to see how the machine worked. She’d probably run off with it to get started on figuring out how to power an army of monster-hunting super soldiers. Which meant all the past wielders of the wand were now at risk of being put to work as conduits for the Solarian Warrior spell. As if there wasn’t enough going on.

She took a moment to admire the terrifying beauty of the light streaming off of her body. It didn’t seem to be anything like what happened to Janna. There was no darkness in her mind, no pain, no rash. Just light and power. Was it even the same stuff? Had it changed? Did _she_ change it? She felt strangely comfortable with it already, like catching up with an old friend, awkward but familiar. It felt very much like her relationship with the wand when she was training with it as a child – which, if you asked her parents, was not a very _healthy_ relationship.

At last, the bus made its approach on the castle grounds. Star rang the bell and waited at the front door for the bus to stop. On the way out the door, Star thanked the driver and casually asked what day it was. Then she stepped off the bus with a stunned look on her face. She stood like a statue on the sidewalk as the door closed behind her. The bus hissed, its engine whirred, and it continued on with its routine leaving Star alone on the road leading up to the castle to take in what she just heard.

Weeks. She had lost three weeks to the dream. No wonder she felt familiar with this power; it had been coursing through her for almost a month – maybe more! Who knows how things worked in that weird dream place. It had felt entirely removed from time… but if there was no time there, then why did it put her back three weeks later!?

She ran up the road, burst the castle doors open, and shouted on her way past the guards to tell her parents that she was okay and that she needed to be left alone for a while.

She found her bedroom oddly clean. Her desk was cleared off of dirty dishes. Her bed was perfectly made. Her floor was pristine. Even her laundry hamper was empty. She realized that her mom totally, totally thought she was dead. Star was already playing that conversation in her head, ‘Why didn’t you call, etc.’ – a conversation she didn’t have time for at all. She had to grab the Index and head down to the library before her parents interrupted her.

The book was still sitting on her shelf where she left it, a bookmark set a few hundred pages in. She had been reading through its entries every night since the incident in search of something useful. There were a few promising titles, but it wasn’t enough just knowing they existed. She needed to know where they were.

Index in hand, she bounded through the halls and down the stairs to the royal library. She set the Index on a table and stood over it, probing it with her fingers, feeling for something inside it that would accept the power she had worked so hard to bring it. She had honestly hoped that just holding the book while being supercharged with glowy energy would have been enough, but apparently the universe was not on her side. She tried coursing power through her hands into the pages of the book, but that did nothing more than cause the pages to glow.

What she thought was the obvious approach wasn’t working, so she moved on to something a bit more complicated: a simple object animation spell. But when she finally got the spell to activate at all – after a more than a few failed attempts – it did little more than cause the dead book to flop about the table mindlessly. She dispelled it and tried something else. This time the spell that she used to recharge her compact. The book lifted up into the air and sparkled faintly for a moment, then fell lifeless back on the table.

“Hey Indy, I know we don’t get along so great and I owe you some killer late fees, but I _really_ need you to wake up for me here.”

No response.

Star was desperately wracking her brain for a way to proceed when she heard a familiar voice at the entrance of the library.

“Star? Is that you?” Her mom sounded stunned to see her.

“Mom! Hi! Uh. Wait don’t,” Star put her hands up and dashed away from her mother’s attempts to embrace her, “You can’t get too close. I can’t control this very well.”

Her mom extended her hands towards Star, but gave up on trying to approach. There was a pained look in her eyes, “What’s happened to you?”

Star looked down at her hands. The light was growing dimmer with every passing minute. Time was short. A full explanation would take far too long. But she needed to say something, or her mom wouldn’t leave her alone. “Well, you know, the Index needs power to find books. I found some power. And here we are! But uh…” She felt crushed. She looked over at the Index, still dead after her best efforts. The reality was, “I have no idea how to wake it up.”

“And what _is_ this ‘power’ you’ve found?”

“It’s uh… okay don’t freak out, but it’s the same stuff that made Janna sick.”

“What!? Star!”

“It’s fine! It’s different for me. Listen, it’s hard to control, but I can kind of do spells with it. I don’t have much left, though, and I really need to concentrate on figuring this out. Please let me work. I promise I’ll come see you when I’m done, okay?”

“Star I can’t just leave you alone like this.”

“Please. Please trust me. I ca **n’t let͍̠͑̔ ̫͞ȳ͎̠̚o̢͇͊̽u̝͐ ̡̥̓͘s̯͈̔́tan** d in my way here, I worked too hard for this.” Again, Star’s voice came out in a strange rumble.

Moon took a startled step back. She took in Star’s terrifying presence for a moment, then relented and waited quietly a safe distance away while Star futilely incanted at the book. She watched in awe as Star casted spell after spell on the old tome. The novelty had worn off on Star by now, but this must have been the first time her mom had seen any real spellcasting since the Cleave.

After a few failed attempts and a frustrated table-slamming tantrum from Star, Moon spoke up, “Star, you… you don’t need to trouble yourself so much with this.”

“What are you talking about? I _have_ to do this, mom. Literally no o **ne ca̹̤̔͋n ̭͐sa͇̚ͅv͔͋̄͜ē̗ ͕̓Jan** na right now. And I told you before, the Index is our best bet. The answer h **as to be̪͌ ̗̟̐̑iń̪ ț̛̝̕hi̮̻̊͂s̬͗ lib** rary _somewhere_ , and I’ **m t͙̍h̞͠ę͡ ͗͟on̫͆l̮̏y̮̖͆̔ on** e who can find it. So unless you have a better idea—”

“—No I mean… Janna—”

“—Mom! Please! I’m trying to think. If you’re not here to help, can you **jus͚̞̿̋t͙͉̑͑ ̘̣̿͞l̯̕e̻̭͛͛â̰͚͋v̬̓e**?” Star leaned over the book menacingly and growled, “Why did Crescenta have to make this thing so complicated?”

“Star, Janna is gone.”

Star’s focus broke. She snapped her attention back to her mother and shook her head, “What? What **do y̠̌o̥̒u̖̬͌͐ ̗̈m̠̫̍̌ean** ‘gone’?”

“Her hospital room was destroyed. Everything inside was turned to ash. _Everything_ —”

“—Stop. Just stop right there. That’s not even… I mean she couldn’t… She can’t _be_ … I could _feel_ her. I _came back_ for her.” Star shook her head and waved her hand dismissively at her mother, “Stop distracting me with this! I n **ee̡͠d͍̒ t͔̝̒̋o̞̞͛ ̠̊f̭̍oc** us.”

“Star this is pointless. You’re just—”

Star bellowed, an arcane rage amplifying her voice, “ **—I̞͐T̥̄’̣̈S ̪̟̆̕ N̥̖͖̔̾͒O̬̫̳͕̓̀̄T̡̲͑́ ̮̯̤̊͋̆̂͟P̰̺̅̚Ò̧̮͛Ȋ̼N͔̰̞͛͋͜͞Ţ̩̠̪̗̰͖̑̊̍̅̏̐̓͜͡L̨̛̟͉̳̱͍̻͈̄̄́̋̚͘Ȇ̢̨̛̲̺̫̼̙͚̈̑̚̚͠͠S̨̰̪̰̮̦̘͆͐̌̄͌̐͟S̟̘̩̲͈̝̮̰̐̃̍̌̈̕͘͡!!**” She stared her mother down, silently, unyielding, fury in her eyes, until the woman backed off. She repeated herself in a quiet, broken voice, “It’s not pointless.”

She continued trying different spells. Awakening? Healing? Something _had_ to work. But she couldn’t just keep wasting her power casting every barely-remembered spell in her repertoire. Her reserve was super low. Every failure felt nauseating. She slammed her fists onto the table, “Work! Just **_wö͖r͉̐̔ͅk͔̰̞͈̐͒̋_**!” But this wasn’t as simple as breaking open a lock, and her rage was not enough to realize her will this time.

Star could feel her mother’s gaze on her while she cried in quiet frustration. She wished her mom could do anything to help. She wished anyone could do anything to help. She wiped tears from her cheeks, then turned to her mother, “What am I supposed to do?”

Moon looked like she was ready to continue discouraging Star from going on with this, but she caught herself, softened her posture, and offered some unexpectedly supportive words, “You always surprise me, Star. Ever since you were an infant, you were so unpredictable, so unrestrained. And as if to follow your personality, you were an unusual spellcrafter. _My_ spells all came from studying these books. They were never novel. They were just little building blocks put together into something bigger. _Your_ spells erupted from a vivid imagination, fully formed into something that would take me years of research to put together.

“But I can’t imagine the Index is very compatible with your style. I don’t know what went into it, but it seems like it ought to use a lot of complicated parts working together, and it’s certainly not the kind of thing you can just imagine into existence. I believe Crescenta would have put a lot of thought into it, and I believe she would have crafted it in much the same way as my spells were crafted – by combining a careful selection of smaller, extant spells into something more complex.”

Star crossed her arms and huffed, “Well that’s great. So I just can’t do it? Is that what you’re saying? I’m a bad spellcaster?”

Moon patiently continued, “No. I’m saying if we want to make this work, we need to be thoughtful about it. If we were to build an Index from scratch, what would it need to do?”

“I don’t know. Find books? Move books into ugly piles? Yell at you for late fees?”

Moon thought about it for a few moments, then she mused, “Crescenta hated when things were late. She invented a spell to enforce her schedule, and to punish the tardy. _Sero Poena_. Maybe that was part of the Index too?”

“Maybe…” Star’s posture relaxed a bit, a weight lifted, “Maybe!” She realized that this insurmountable task might have just gone from being an impossible guessing game to a solvable puzzle. She just had to figure out which of Crescenta’s mad little spells could combine together into a powerful library guardian. But there were so many, and Star – not exactly a dedicated student of Magic – knew so few of them. But her mom… maybe she _could_ help.

The two of them set to work trying to remember anything that might fit the needs of the spell. After a minute of thought, Star snapped her fingers and pointed at her mother, “What was that horrible spell you used to cast on my stuffies when you went out with dad?”

“Oh, yes! _Regina Animant_. It was supposed to make your little toys into reliable babysitters for the night. I still can’t believe what you did to them.”

“The little dictators deserved it. And that’s just the attitude the Index has. No wonder we didn’t get along.”

After another minute of careful thought, Star remembered another unfortunately familiar spell. “That spell Ludo kept using to throw people into the sky? That could move the books, right?”

“ _Levitato_? Yes, that sounds right. Crescenta was very proud of that spell.”

Star counted the spells off on her hand, “And then… a spell to find things?”

Moon mused, “If we had something like that, would we even need the Index?”

“I wouldn’t be able to cast it too many times now, and I only have a few books in mind… The Index could find everything in a second.”

Then Star remembered a flash of something she saw while flipping through _Crescenta’s Splendid Spells_. “Uh… what was it called… there was this one spell I spotted in one of her spell journals. It said it was for finding things, but also losing other things at the same time.” The book had mentioned that Crescenta used the spell to get some alone time with her crush, which Star had found adorable. “Kind of useless, I thought. But if it was part of the Index, then it would explain why everything always ended up lost in these ridiculous piles instead of on the shelves. Oh man, what was it called? Uhm… something like… _In_ … _Inventory_?”

“ _Inventum Oblivisci_?”

Star clapped her hands together, “Yeah! That sounds right. How the heck do you remember all these?”

“Star I was a very lonely child, I spent a lot of time in here, and I was told that memorizing all these spells was important work for a princess. You were _also_ told that, but I suppose you had to do things your own way.”

Star counted off the spells again, “That should be everything the spell needs, right?”

“I’m not sure, but if we’re lucky, it should at least be enough to restore the Index’s basic functions, even if it’s not a perfect recreation. Let’s put together an incantation and… well, you’ll just have to try your best. Improvised spellcasting was one of your finest talents back in the day, Star. I have faith you can do this. But whatever the outcome, we’ll see it through.”

Star nodded. It was rare to hear such sincere encouragement from her mother these days, but this wasn’t the time to relish in it.

From the far end of the table – what Star considered a safe distance away – Moon dictated the incantations for the old spells and demonstrated the correct motions for each. Then Star put it all together into something new – well, hopefully something _old_ , really, something reminiscent of the original spell – but at the very least, it had to be something _close enough_. Because honestly, her power was dwindling to nothing here. This spell would be demanding, and it would probably the last spell she had in her.

Star grabbed a nubby pencil from the reference desk and followed her mother’s instructions to inscribe and interweave sigils from each of the spells into the table around the book. She hurriedly practiced the chimeric choreography a few times for her mom’s review. Then she took a deep breath and focused herself to the task. This was it. Everything was ready. And this last attempt would take everything she had to give.

She performed the somatic portion of the ad hoc spell, moving her hands carefully in the air, taking steps to and fro, twirling as necessary, all while reciting a thoughtful but hastily conceived incantation that she hoped against all odds would capture the imagination of the eager queen Crescenta in her prime.

“ _Locate, levitate, animate and dominate. Index of the royal words, awaken now unto your fate. Keep us sorted, hunt the late. Your literary wards await_.” She placed her hands on the book, emulating to the best of her ability the few successes she’d experienced since she awakened, shaking off any sense of uncertainty and pouring everything she had into it. Then she intoned the name her mother had suggested for the spell, “ _Quaedam Magica Index_.”

The sigils surrounding the book pulled the last of the light out of Star’s hands and started glowing brilliantly, creating a crackling, blinding white disk of energy underneath the book.

Star stepped back, catching herself on a chair as she nearly collapsed under the sudden weight of her mundane body. She propped herself up and watched, squinting at the light, teeth clenched. She whispered to the universe, “Come on, come on… Please…”

From the disk, threads of light reached up and latched onto the weathered tome. The golden filigree slowly regained its luster. More and more threads wrapped around the book until it was entirely encased in white light. Star held her breath. This might work. It _had_ to work.

The sigils’ light faded, the threads exploded away from the Index, and – to Star’s amazement – the book appeared to be restored to its former glory. The leather’s cracks were healed, the gems on the cover shimmered with a renewed color, the tears in the pages were mended. It truly looked… alive.

Star approached the book and touched its cover gently. “Hey Indy, you uh… you awake?”

Star could hear sounds coming from the book, but they were so weak she couldn’t make them out. She leaned down to get a better listen, and the Index murmured, “Star Butterfly… you owe the library… three thousand four hundred and thirty two pounds of corn for the late return of… _Interdimensional Hunks and Babes in Space, Volume 4_ …”

Star let out a sigh of relief, “Yeah Indy that sounds about right. Can we work out the payment later? I need your help finding some books.”

Moon approached the table and marveled at the newly revived Index, “I can’t believe it. You really did it—”

Star put up her hand to stop her mom. Time was of the essence here. “Indy I need you to bring me every book we’ve got that talks about ‘Magic burn’, ‘Starlight’, or ‘weird black slime’.”

The book weakly replied that it had a few hundred books that matched and that it would retrieve them immediately. But it didn’t. “Oh?” The Index sounded afraid, “I can’t… I can’t move?”

Star sighed. It hadn’t been enough. “I’m sorry, Indy. You’re uh… you’re on borrowed time, I think. Maybe you can just tell me where the books are?”

“Borrowed time… I’m going to die again, am I?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I don’t have any more juice for you.”

“Well,” The Index paused for a moment, thinking whatever thoughts a sentient book might think about its own unexpected mortality. Then it complied with Star’s request, “You’ll find _The Witch Doctor’s Compendium of Arcane Ailments_ in Pile… B-3 in position 256,895. _Soul Food: Forbidden Recipes of the Deep_ is in Pile B-17 in… position 1,276,333. _The Dreamers’ Gift_ is in—"

“—Okay hold on, I have no idea where these piles are. How I about I carry you? Can you just direct me?”

“Well it’s not… very dignified to be carried around by so profoundly deviant a patron of the library… but I don’t think I have much of a choice.”

Star heaved the tome up into her arms and jogged from pile to pile asking for directions on where to find the books. “Let’s just do the ‘Magic burn’ ones for now, okay?”

The best the Index could do was cause the correct books to wiggle around slightly while Star and Moon dug madly through each pile. It was slow work. After half an hour, they had only found a couple of relevant books, and the Index was quickly losing its strength. Right after they found the third book, the Index fizzled out with a flash of light. And that was it. It was over. The Index had returned to its dull, lifeless state.

Star fell to her knees in front of the dead tome. All that. All that for three books.

“Star,” Moon put her hand on Star’s shoulder to offer some comfort.

Star hung her head in silence. This was it. The limit of her power. Even with everything she had at her disposal, this was all she could do. Pathetic. She scowled and stood up to leave the Index where it died, giving up on it entirely. Then she slammed the books they’d found on the table, flipped open the top one, and got to work. It could be worse. Three was better than zero. It wasn’t _much_ better than zero, but she figured she’d have to make the most of it.

Moon pulled out the chair next to Star and sat down, placing her hand delicately on Star’s arm. “Star there’s no rush. Why don’t you get some rest?”

Star was exhausted, but more than that she was furious. At herself. At everything. And the last thing she wanted to do right now was sleep. “I’m fine. I’m busy.” She shoved another of the books over to her mom, “Either help or go.”

“Star, even if Janna is… alive… she _is_ gone. Everyone thinks she’s been turned to ash, and no one knows where she is otherwise. And you won’t find her while studying old textbooks in a cave. This isn’t helping anyone.”

Star didn’t respond, she just continued reading the book in front of her – a textbook with stuffy, detailed notes on Magic burn case studies and failed treatments. Pretty disheartening, really. Star was afraid to turn to the most recent case. Judging by the youth of the book… she knew who it would be, and she wasn’t ready to see that name again – especially with the Magic High Commission’s former mewman representative sitting right next to her.

Moon sat quietly beside her daughter and idly flipped through the undecipherable book Star had placed in front of her. At length she found the courage to ask, “Star, where _were_ you all this time? Are you well?”

“I’m not ‘well’, no, thanks for asking. You want the whole story? Fine. I was violently kidnapped by some shady organization, interrogated, kidnapped _again_ , forced to watch my boyfriend get tortured, and then blackmailed into using some kind of weird toxic power to revive a Solarian army. And I have no idea if I actually did it, so that’s a thing. I might have revived the most vile force of evil in Mewnian history and I don’t even remember it. Then I lost three weeks of my life to… a dream or something? And then when I came back, I suddenly had all the power I needed to save Janna, and I wasted it all, and she’s _gone_ now so it doesn’t even _matter_ , apparently. And now my _mother_ will not leave me alone while I try to find _something_ in these books to justify all the garbage I just went through.”

“We thought you were dead, Star. I thought I truly lost you. From what Marco told us—”

Star lit up, “He’s okay? He got out?”

“He came to the castle expecting to find you here. Nearly three weeks ago. He’s been searching for you, even after we all… well, from what little he told us… and from the news… you were being so reckless…”

“You really thought I was dead?”

“The government released a formal statement about it. They said a septarian terrorist kidnapped you weeks ago and… that she ended your life in cold blood. There was a recording, but I just couldn’t bring myself to watch.”

“That’s… that’s _crazy_!” The Seal was trying to frame Rose for her disappearance? And they made a fake video of her death? Why? Why go so far with this? Did the _Seal_ think she was dead?

Star suddenly realized the gravity of the pain she left behind for her friends and family. There were a lot of people worrying about her, hurting for her loss. And if Janna really was missing, then what her mom was saying was true; even if Star found some cure for Janna’s illness, it wouldn’t help anything until they found her.

She sighed and closed her book, then stood up to accept a hug from her heartsick mother. It seemed like just as soon as she had a glimmer of hope, everything was already falling apart beyond her control. But having her mom’s arms around her helped. Her mother comforted her until she had the strength to stand up on her own and move on from this failure. Star collected her books in her arms and left the library with her mother at her side.

Star struggled to walk, but she still insisted on carrying herself without assistance and refused to hand over the books in her arms. While they were climbing the stairs back to the surface, Star realized she urgently needed to talk to someone. “Hey, can I borrow your phone?”

Star picked out Marco from her mom’s list of contacts, then held her breath while the phone rang.

All the life was drained from Marco’s voice when he answered, “Hey Moon what’s up.”

“Marco! It’s me, it’s Star, I’m okay.”

“Star!? Where have you been?? Where are you now??”

“Long story, but I’m home now. Come over?”

“Yeah! Yeah of course! I’ll be there in a few minutes.” Marco was about to hang up, but he returned to his phone to say one more thing, “Star I missed you. I missed you a lot. I was so worried.”

“I know. I love you. I’ll tell you all about it when you get here, okay?”

“Yeah. Okay. Okay, see you in a bit! Love you!”

“Love you too.”

Star returned the phone to her mom. They climbed the stairs in silence for a few floors before Star found the nerve to ask, “How’s dad?”

“Worried. But he never gave up on finding you. He was convinced you were out there. I told them not to, but he and Marco, they kept looking even after everyone else assumed the worst. They very nearly caused a catastrophic diplomatic incident over it. He’s out there right now, actually, hopefully not breaching any international laws.”

Star wasn’t sure how to feel knowing how much trouble she was causing everyone. If she _had_ died… it would be nice if her family could move on quickly. But instead it sounded like the people she cherished most in her life would have been tormented by the empty promise of finding her again. Heck, it sounded like her dad was even willing to start a war for her safe return. But it’s not like she could ask them to stop. She’d do the same for any of them.

Before they returned to the main floor of the castle, Moon stopped Star with a gentle warning, “Star listen, I’m overjoyed to know you’re alive and well, and I’m sure you need to take some time for yourself, but you should know… things… got a little hectic right after you disappeared. Not just here at home. There’s been a lot of chaos in the world in the last few weeks. It would probably be wise to stay away from the news until you’re feeling ready for it. It might be too heavy for you right now.”

“Gee, that’s totally not ominous at all.”

“Please trust me. Take some time to recover. It sounds like you’ve been through a lot. You need to let it settle first.”

Star sighed, “Okay, fine, I’ll try to stay away from the news.”

They embraced again before Star went to her room to wait for Marco – who was already standing outside her door, entirely out of breath, knocking impatiently and calling her name.

Star got his attention with a little wave, “Hey.”

“Star!” Marco ran over to her and squeezed her so tight she thought she would break. He whispered through tears, “You’re really okay, oh my god Star I never… I never gave up but I missed you so much… I was so scared…”

Star hugged him and tried to comfort him, “Hey, it’s okay, I’m okay.” She took his head in her hands, placed a gentle kiss on his brow, pressed her forehead into his, and kept reassuring him that she was fine, but he couldn’t stop crying.

She held him for a long time, remembering a conversation that felt like yesterday, a conversation where she had accused Marco of being a coward, unwilling to fight for her safety. How could she have been so stupid? It was so obvious that he would never give up on her, that he would do anything to keep her safe, that he was easily the most courageous person she had ever known. “Hey uh, thank you. For looking for me. My mom said you and my dad were causing a fuss. I hope you didn’t get into too much trouble.”

Marco sniffled and tried not to choke on his sobs while he spoke, “I knew you were out there, Star. I knew it was a lie. It had to be… you wouldn’t just… just go like that…”

Star smirked, “Yeah, obviously. As if I’d let Rose get the better of me.”

“Exactly! What a stupid story.”

Marco’s tear-stained eyes met with hers. He took her in for a long time, like he was afraid he might forget, like he might never see her face again.

“Hey, come on, I’m okay, see? I’m fine.” She showed herself off to him, gave a tour of her limbs to show she had no injuries, and smiled to show she had no pain. “See, all good.”

Marco took a deep breath and nodded.

“Come on, let’s go sit down, I have a lot to tell you.”

“Yeah, me too.”

[](https://www.cutercounter.com/)   



	21. Catching Up

Marco sat down on the bed next to Star – who had sprawled herself out on top of the covers, face down, exhausted, but safe. Her hair was a mess, and her clothes were absolutely in tatters. He wondered how the back of her shirt had been blown out like that. It looked like the kind of damage you only see on flags that have been torn apart by years of exposure to powerful winds. The hole left her little wings exposed, and she usually wasn’t proud of showing those off. He placed a comforting hand on her back – more for himself, though, honestly. He wanted to make sure she was really there, really okay. He couldn’t imagine what she’d been through.

She’d said she had a lot to tell, but she didn’t seem to have it in her to share much. Still, she told him what she could manage without sitting up or rolling over. Just the barest details – that she was interrogated, that she helped Rose escape, that Mina dragged her down into the caves (“As you know,” she said, but it was news to him), that she disappeared into some kind of dream, and that she somehow managed to escape the compound just a couple of hours ago using some crazy broken arcane power.

There were lots of unanswered questions, but Star was recovering from what was obviously a very hectic day and he wanted to give her a bit of space. He didn’t need to know anything right now other than that she was alive. He was immeasurably grateful just to be near her again, to hear her voice. He held her hand and she squeezed him back. He felt like he shouldn’t ever let go again.

He glanced over at the books she’d recovered from the library. When she came in the room, she had stacked them neatly on her desk with a forlorn look on her face before she crashed in bed. She must have got the Index working somehow, and he had a feeling it was no small feat. Only three books, though. Not exactly the haul they were hoping for.

Star sighed, “So. Janna. Gone, I’m told.”

“Oh, you heard?” Marco was grateful he didn’t have to break that news to Star. “Yeah, it’s uh… it’s been a rough week. What do you know?”

“Well _I_ know she’s alive, but my mom said you all think she was burned to ashes.”

Marco shook his head, “No, I think you’re right. She’s out there.”

Star rolled over and looked at him in awe, “You can feel her too?”

“Oh, uh, no. You can _feel_ her?”

“Well, I… could. Before. Soon? You know what, don’t worry about it. Just tell me why you think she’s out there.”

“Oh. Well, she disappeared the same day Meteora went missing. A little too coincidental, right?”

Star brought her hands to her face, “Hold on hold on hold on. Meteora went missing _too_?”

Marco felt like he just made a huge mistake. Maybe he shouldn’t be talking about this.

“Oh… you didn’t know about that…”

Star slammed her hands down on the bed and sat herself up, “No, I didn’t _know about that_ Marco! I’ve been in a cosmic abyss for three weeks. And my mom didn’t think my cousin going missing was important enough to mention, I guess!” Star grumbled, “This better not be what I think it is… Do you have any leads?”

“Well, a little one.”

“ _Please_ tell me it’s not Mina.”

“What? No. It’s MP. She’s acting pretty weird about Meteora disappearing.”

“Mariposa? Meteora’s her best friend, isn’t she?” Star suddenly looked rather introspective, “I mean… I’d be acting weird too.”

“No that’s the thing, she’s not freaking out or crying. Just sulking. More like how she gets when they haven’t hung out in a while. Kids are pretty obvious, you know? I think she knows Meteora’s safe and she’s just grumpy about being away from her.”

“Well if she’s safe, that’s good, right?”

“Yeah it’s great, except she’s not telling anyone about it. She’d never give up her best friend’s secrets, you know? But here’s what I think is going on: I think Meteora was secretly visiting Janna and then something went wrong.”

“Why would she—”

“Okay, hear me out. Remember about a month ago… uh… like a week or two before we got kidnapped, I guess. I caught the girls sneaking out of the temple – which just _happened_ to be that day that Janna’s hospital room got messed up a bit, right? I figured there probably wasn’t any harm in it – just visiting their sick, beloved aunty Janna. Maybe they got a little rowdy while they were there, messed up the equipment, whatever, no big deal.

“Now this is just a guess, but maybe they kept going back, and I bet things got out of hand this time. The hospital room got really destroyed, Janna got hurt, and Meteora had no idea what to do, so she just took Janna and ran. Or… or else whatever blast destroyed the room really did cook Janna. But you’re telling me that’s impossible and I’m definitely way more into that idea.”

Star raised an eyebrow, “Well it _is_ impossible, but your thing seems like a bit of a leap. You don’t think it’s just Mina’s goon squad?”

Marco cocked his head to the side, “Why would Mina be involved?”

“Because she probably still wants a former spellcaster to fix up her Solarian army. It’d be pretty easy to take little kid Meteora and unconscious Janna.”

“I’m sorry, fix up her _what_ now?”

Star looked at him with disbelief, “Did you miss the whole thing where Mina was trying to make me use the Solarian Warrior spell? I know you were being tortured and all, but—”

“—What?”

“What _what_? In the cave?”

Marco shrugged and shook his head. He didn’t know what to say. He definitely hadn’t been tortured in a cave.

“You weren’t being tortured?”

“Uh… I don’t think so.”

“You weren’t in the cave with me? When Mina was… Oh for the love of…” Star put her head in her hands and let out a growling cackle, “You know what, Marco? I’m pretty sure I’m just going to rip her apart the next time I see her. Zero regret.” She picked up a nearby pillow, held it up to her face, and screamed into it until her lungs were empty. Then she took a deep breath and a few moments to calm down, and after she was mostly sorted out, she asked Marco how he had escaped the compound.

“Well I definitely managed to do it without getting tortured in a cave. I did run into Mina, though. I figured she was just doing whatever her job is there. After they tried to interrogate me and Rose, they put me back in my cell. Then some kind of alarm went off and all the guards were running around. Mina came and got me and took me into some secret cave or something – the same cave you were in? Lots of amalgam junk?”

Star nodded her head.

“But I managed to get away from her and ran off into the tunnels. Turns out the compound was connected to the same cave system that me and Janna have been exploring. It started to look familiar after I wandered around for a while, and I eventually managed to find an exit into Echo Creek.”

“You navigated a cave system. In the dark. While in handcuffs.”

Marco smiled proudly, “You make it sound hard. That’s not even on my Top Ten Hairiest Situations List.”

Star sighed, “Mina had someone tied up right in front of me, screaming in pain, pretending to be you. I guess it was all an act and I’m an idiot for believing it.”

“Hey, come on. That’s not fair. She just knew how to mess with you.”

“Yeah and I got real messed with. But I’m glad you weren’t hurt. I was… yeah I don’t know what I was planning to do… I had some pretty explodey thoughts in mind when I got my hands on the machine.”

“The machine. You don’t mean _the_ machine. Janna’s machine?”

“Oh. Right. You weren’t there. So uh, wow. This whole time. Okay. Mina was posing as that guy we were looking for – Larian. I guess she was trying to get to Janna for some reason? Anyways when she got me, she had the machine and Janna’s notes and she thought I would be able to use that Starlight stuff – the stuff that got into Janna? She thought I could cast spells with it, and she thought if she blackmailed me, that I would cast the Solarian Warrior spell on her. I was definitely not going to do it. Obviously. But uh…”

Marco saw a lot of turmoil in Star’s eyes. “Did you?”

“I don’t know. I hope not. I was hoping you would know, honestly. It’s all a big scary blank after I touched the thing. I mean, I guess we’re not being crushed by giant enchanted mechs in the middle of a _third_ Solarian war, so we’re _probably_ fine. But whatever happened, Mina probably knows that the machine works now, and I bet she’s not going to give up on it just because I disappeared or whatever.”

“… into that ‘cosmic abyss’?”

“Yeah.”

“What was that about?”

“Marco, I love you, and I promise we can talk about it another time, but I don’t really want to get into it right now. It was a lot.”

Marco shot a finger gun at her, “Got it. No abyss talk.”

He wasn’t sure if he should mention his failed rescue attempts. He felt like, probably not. It would just worry Star more to know he was risking his life in vain to seek her out when she had actually just vanished into… uh… some kind of abyss or something? He’d had a few close calls along the way – navigating the caves, being spotted by Mina’s goons, struggling with the secret door. And then when he finally figured out a way in, he brought River and Tom along and… well, those two are not exactly masters of stealth, so things got pretty wild. They successfully apprehended a guard and extracted some information from him – principally that Star wasn’t in the building anymore, which set River off on a berserker rampage. While he was tearing the place apart, they took advantage of the confusion to break out a few captives. They managed to return a few of Rose’s comrades to her through the caves, but they had to fight off a swarm of guards to get away, and they barely escaped with their lives.

Yeah. Yeah, best to save that story for another day, he figured.

For now, they should focus on a game plan for getting Janna back, and Marco wasn’t convinced on the Mina angle.

“Okay but… the hospital disaster. Say it _was_ Mina who took them both – at the _same_ time. Why would she destroy the hospital room? And Meteora is a force of nature these days. She attacked me the other day, slammed me into a wall for ‘getting between’ her and Mariposa. I was afraid for my life. She’s ridiculously strong now that she’s starting to get the hang of her shapeshifting. I don’t even think an army could stop her. How could Mina just _take_ her?”

Star massaged her temples. Marco was worried that this stuff might be too much for her to talk about right now, but she kept pushing herself through it, “Did you see Mina’s face when she got you? No? She’s not… normal anymore. After she lost Solaria’s power, she’s been looking for… _anything_ to fill that hole in her. And she’s been… I don’t know… mixing herself up with things. Monsters? Beasts? Who knows how strong she is now. And Meteora doesn’t know how to incinerate things, does she? Mina, though, she’s got access to all the firepower in that compound. And wouldn’t it be easier for her to use Janna if everyone thought she was dead?”

Marco thought about it. Meteora definitely didn’t seem to have any affinity for fire. But, “Didn’t Janna torch her bedroom when all this got started? Maybe _she_ cooked the hospital room. Maybe _Meteora_ was the one who got hurt.”

Star got lost in quiet thought. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, clearly struggling to bear the weight of everything that was happening around her. Marco wanted nothing more than to hide all of this from her so she could recover and find some peace, but he knew it needed to be resolved sooner than later. They needed a plan, at least. He needed to know what to do to move them forward from this, to get things back to normal again.

At last, Star put her thoughts together, “Okay. Well either way, Mariposa is probably the best lead we’ve got. Maybe Mina’s got Meteora and Janna locked up somewhere or maybe Meteora just ran off with Janna on her own. But even if those two _are_ out there hiding somewhere, Mina’s going to be hunting them down.” Star grabbed Marco’s arm and caught his eyes with a look of absolute authority, “Marco, this Starlight stuff – it’s real. It’s broken and it’s dangerous. Maybe even more dangerous than the Magic was. And even though it’s like, _super_ hard to do it, it _can_ be used for spellcasting. We can’t let Mina have it. We can’t let her find Janna and Meteora first. And if she’s already got them, we have to stop her from using them for whatever she’s got planned.”

Star was right. This could get real ugly real fast.

“I’ll talk to Mariposa when I get home,” Marco offered.

Star hopped out of bed, wobbling a bit on unsteady legs before she caught herself and stood up straight, trying to maintain a façade of bravado, “Woo. Dizzy. Okay, let’s go.”

“What? Right now?”

“Yes, right now!”

“Star you need to recover from all this. No offense, but you can barely stand and you look like a mess. Take a day, at least. I’ll convince Mariposa to cooperate with us, and tomorrow we can move on whatever she’s got, okay? I bet she’ll be more willing to spill the beans if she knows we’ve found something that can help,” Marco nodded over to the books Star brought up from the library.

Star looked at the unimpressive stack uneasily, “I don’t know how much these are going to help, Marco. We barely got anything out of the Index before it died.”

Marco approached the desk and picked up the top book. _The Complete Catalogue of Mewman Ailments_. It looked fairly modern and had very little wear. The title was certainly promising, but the entry for Magic burn was not very hopeful. Just a list of familiar symptoms and an unknown cause for the illness – ‘something to do with the misuse of Magic, so says the High Commission’ – along with a list of case studies and failed treatments. The most recent case study was, if Marco remembered the Mewnian calendar right, only about ten years ago – Pel Aerlinde, a little peasant girl. Failed treatments included herbs of ‘all sorts’, incantations of ‘all sorts’, glowing crystals of ‘all sorts’, and oils of ‘all sorts’ – though the details of what items went into the broad category of ‘all sorts’ were left to the reader’s imagination. The book seemed to be written from the perspective of a very self-assured mewman medical practitioner, and not a scholar of arcana – though the handwriting changed a bit here and there, suggesting the contents were altered by another party at some point.

The next book was a rough-bound journal. It was written in a glyphic language that reminded Marco of something he’d seen somewhere before, but nonetheless he found the text undecipherable. The journal entries were mixed with labelled drawings that looked like circuitry.

The final book had no index or table of contents. It was a few hundred pages of old monster folklore, translated to English by some amateur Mewnian anthropologist, and simply titled _Monster Tales_.

Not exactly the wealth of interdimensional knowledge they were hoping for.

“The Index brought you these?”

“Kind of. More like it sent me digging for them.”

“Anything good?”

“I don’t know. I hope so.”

Marco handed Star the book of folklore, “I’ll talk to Mariposa. You find something in the books. If I tell her we can fix up whatever’s wrong with Janna, hopefully that’ll be convincing enough. I bet she’s just worried about Meteora getting in trouble or something.”

Star slumped back down on her bed and looked at the book woefully, “Confining me to my room, huh?”

Marco sat down on the edge of the bed and held her hand, “The world can wait for one day, Star. You know what they say: you have to take care of yourself before you can take care of anyone else. And when we do find Janna, we’ll need whatever’s in these books to save her.”

Star nodded sadly and accepted her role in the plan.

Marco kissed her and got up to leave, but she held on to his sleeve and wouldn’t let go.

“Stay. For a bit,” she pleaded.

Marco hesitated for a moment, but conceded with a gentle response, “Okay. Just for a bit.”

Marco wrapped himself around Star while they lay in her bed. He poured affection into his embrace, and she squeezed his arms desperately, like she was dangling over the edge of a cliff, but she was breathing soft, peaceful sighs. He listened intently to each breath she took – a treasure he had taken for granted, and a sound he only just realized he had desperately missed since she was gone – the unstoppable sound of Star _being_. She was so strong, and Marco had never imagined she could ever be in real danger. He was always worrying about protecting everyone else around him, but Star put him at ease, like he never had to worry about taking care of her. She could always take care of herself. And when he helped her, it wasn’t because she was helpless, or because she needed him. He helped her because he believed in what she was doing. No, the indomitable Star Butterfly could never be in real danger. Until she was. Until he couldn’t hear her _be_ anymore. And then _he_ felt helpless.

He left soft kisses on her neck, wishing he could stay like this, to just be with her, to ignore everything else, but he knew that it wasn’t time for him to rest yet. But if he left, what if she just disappeared again? What if she was gone for good this time? He tried to shake those doubts out. She was fine. She was strong. He believed in her, he knew she could take care of herself, and he knew he had work to do. He wasn’t helping at all by needlessly worrying about her.

It took a lot longer than ‘just a bit’, but Marco was eventually able to pry himself away from Star to set out on the herculean task of convincing his troubled little sister to help them find Meteora. One more kiss and one more look of longing, then he was off.

When he got home, he offered his parents an afternoon off while he took Mariposa out on a walk to the park. They were happy to accept – and delighted to see him in high spirits for the first time in weeks. Mariposa, however, was pretty grumpy about going out. She was just as lethargic as she had been since Meteora disappeared, and when Marco finally dragged her out of the house, she didn’t want to walk, so Marco had to carry her on his shoulders. She slumped forward onto his head and draped her arms limply over his face.

After they walked in silence for a while, Marco tried to start up a conversation.

“How you holding up, MP?”

Mariposa didn’t respond, and Marco had a feeling this wasn’t going to go well if he wasn’t direct about it.

“So, Star just came back.”

Mariposa sat up a bit, “Star? She’s okay?”

“Yeah, and she found something that’s going to make Janna better.”

Mariposa slumped forward and went silent again.

“But we can’t help Janna if we can’t find her.”

Still no response.

“You know where she is, don’t you?”

Marco could feel Mariposa shaking her head, “No. She’s dead I think. That’s what everyone says.”

“She’s not dead, MP. She’s just hiding somewhere. With Meteora, right? But she’s still sick and we need to make her better. Maybe you know where they are?”

Mariposa grumbled, “It doesn’t matter. Meteora’s not coming back…”

“Aw, MP, where’s that coming from?”

“She doesn’t care about anyone anymore. All she cares about is stupid Magic.”

Why would Meteora care about… Oh. Right. That was probably why Meteora was so interested in Janna, then. Well that probably wasn’t good.

Marco couldn’t keep the worry out of his voice, “What do you mean?”

Mariposa had nothing more to say on the matter. She must have realized she said something she wasn’t supposed to.

“Did she do something bad?”

Mariposa shook her head again.

“We won’t let her get in trouble, MP, I promise.”

“No. Your promises are no good, Marco. You promised we’d be together. You lied and you tricked us. And it’s your fault she’s so mad. And if you’re lying now, and she gets taken away, and I never see her again…” Mariposa’s voice was wavering. She was on the verge of tears.

Marco didn’t know what to say to calm her down. All those years ago when he convinced Mariposa and Meteora to leave their teenage lives behind in the Neverzone, to return to the safety and comfort of their families, he really wasn’t lying or trying to trick them, he was just trying to help. He thought he was saving them from a life of hardship – a life that would have been lived out and lost in a few minutes from their families’ perspectives. And he always knew they were upset about it – Meteora made it no secret how much she hated Marco, and the way Mariposa looked at him sometimes was devastating – but he hoped after four years, maybe they could have forgotten. But it wasn’t something he could forget, and maybe it wasn’t something that deserved to be forgotten.

He whispered a long-overdue apology to Mariposa, knowing it would probably never be enough.

A cheerful bell rang behind Marco as a cyclist whizzed past them. He realized he’d come to a standstill in the middle of a bike path. He moved off to a nearby patch of grass, then set Mariposa down and sat next to her. Mariposa turned away from Marco, curled her knees up to her chest, and buried her face in her arms to cry properly. Marco wanted to reach out to her, but he knew he couldn’t be both the source of her pain and the source of her comfort, so he just stayed with her, struggling to convince himself he was still her protector, that he had made the right choice, that he was the good brother he hoped he was. He wondered how to tell the difference between the noble guilt carried for doing what’s right no matter the cost, and the disgraceful guilt carried for a well-intended mistake that can never be undone. Maybe it would become clear over a pot of bad tea, but probably not.

After a long while, Mariposa’s voice came out, soft and shaking, “I’m scared.”

Marco placed his hand on her back and tried to comfort her. She didn’t object.

Mariposa continued, “She’s been acting weird. Crazy. There’s something in her eyes that doesn’t look right. And she keeps… she keeps talking about going back home. I told her we _are_ home, but she’s still not happy here.”

Marco sat silently and let Mariposa speak. Maybe she would reveal something useful. But… more importantly, he needed to hear her pain, to understand what he’d done to her.

“We snuck out to see Janna, that day when you caught us. Meteora was scary. She…” Mariposa hesitated to continue, but she took a deep breath and spat out the rest in a hurried string of syllables, “She-started-talking-about-Magic-this-and-Magic-that-and-she-grabbed-Janna-and-got-a-weird-look-and… and… I couldn’t stop her, she just grabbed Janna and… I shoved her and yelled and… I don’t know why she did it.”

Marco took a moment to process that. Meteora had assaulted Janna in the hospital while ranting about Magic. This really might be a bigger problem than he imagined.

After putting it together a bit, he wanted to clarify, “She wants to take you back. To the Neverzone. Your ‘real’ home, I guess, right?”

Mariposa nodded.

“Maybe she thinks Janna has the power to do that.”

“Why?”

“You uh… you probably couldn’t see it, but Janna’s got something in her that’s making her sick. A dark energy or something. Star thinks it’s like a crazy sort of dysfunctional Magic. It doesn’t work right. And only certain people can see it – Magic users, people who used the Magic Wand – like Star, and me, and… Meteora. And if she saw it and recognized what it was… Maybe she thought it could be used to get out of Mewnearth. To go home.”

Mariposa buried her head in her arms again and went silent for a while, then asked with a little hope in her voice, “You can get rid of it?”

“Yeah. Star came back with something that can help,” Marco lied, hoping it was the truth, “But we can’t do anything until we find Janna and Meteora, MP.”

Mariposa scowled at herself for a few seconds and then let out a little huff before standing up. She dramatically turned to face Marco – who was still sitting humbly on the grass – with her face all full of furious determination, “Marco, I know you think you’re my brother, I know you love me, and I know why you did what you did. But Grobb’s been my sister for longer than I can remember, and if you do anything to hurt her, I _will_ destroy you, I don’t care if you’re my brother.”

Goosebumps prickled all over Marco’s skin at her words. For a kid, she had a powerful presence when she wanted to. He knew without a sliver of doubt that Mariposa wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice him for Meteora. It was cold, it hurt, but he respected Mariposa’s love for Meteora. She was a good sister. And he… he had to be a good brother.

Marco put out his hand to shake hers, “I won’t hurt her. I promise. I’ll do everything in my power to keep your sister safe. You have my word on my life.”

Mariposa shook his hand firmly with an unyielding fierceness in her eyes, and Marco said a little prayer to himself that he’d be able to keep that promise.

[](https://www.cutercounter.com/)   



	22. Her Name

_5th of the Fractured Moon_

Escaped, so much as throwing myself from a tower and shattering my bones at the behest of an enemy is an escape. She might have meant well, but she is thoroughly an idiot, and making me one for following her. Star Butterfly. Why did I allow myself to get tangled up in her affairs? I should have known this would be trouble, but I saw an opportunity in it. Greedy. And now, tangled up in it as I am, I must stay here, spying on her opulent home, hiding, waiting on a promise that will likely never come to be.

I was barely in and out of my home for supplies before the Seal’s soldiers were battering down the door. I wonder how the Princess of Ruin plans to shelter me. In her mighty fortress? Among those enemies who would happily see my kind erased from their world? Ridiculous.

_7th_

I linger around the castle and find nothing. No sign of the princess. Her boy comes occasionally, then leaves to some cave, equipped for battle. I attempted to follow him, but I am no cave dweller. I entirely lost myself after tripping in the dark. Pathetic.

A rumbling, hungry creature prowls the darkness. I don’t recognize the sound, but I know enough to stay still and silent when it passes. I’m fortunate the boy returned the same way for me to follow him back, or else I should already be a meal for that beast in the dark.

Why would he waste his time exploring caves while his princess is missing? I doubt he would sit idly, so the caves and the girl must be related. I hate to expose myself. I doubt he knows the girl’s vow to me, and I am certain he still sees me as an enemy, but if I’m to find an answer to Star’s promise, I first need to find her.

_9th_

He offers his assistance. Naïve. Why are humans so confounding? Some are so cutthroat, colder than any septarian under Seth. Others are so warm it sickens me. Where was this warmth when ~~Rose~~ was seeking peace? It aches my heart. Cruel.

I have nothing for him, and still he offers to shelter me here in these caves. Food. Bedding. Heat. He tells me this place is safe, that the other humans fear the rumors of beasts here. He is ignorant of the creature that lingers still, that follows him at a distance as he comes and goes. He claims to have cleared them all away with Shadowfire – ‘Janna’ is her real name, he says. More fitting a human. Humble. But foolish of him to reveal it to an enemy. He thinks these kindnesses will endear me to him, to them, but he doesn’t know the depravity I have known. If he weren’t useful to me…

I’ll let him deal with the creature on his own, I think.

_10th_

Today he returns from the depths of the caves with an abundance of energy. No Star, but he’s found a way to return to the Seal’s compound. Thinks he’s getting close. He tells me to keep hidden when he next announces himself at the entrance of the cave. He plans to bring others through soon, to mount an assault. Brave.

_12th_

Bad news today. The boy, the mad King Butterfly, and some slender demon bathed in flame have returned from ransacking the compound, but Star is not there.

Some of my colleagues are returned to me at least. Merciful. We camp together now, here in the darkness, with nowhere else to go. They share their pain with me. I understand too well. And knowing that this is the same that my dear ~~Rose~~ endured until her death. Overwhelming. They left me to my darkness while they tried to find some peace in their newfound freedom, such as hiding in a cave is freedom. At least their bodies will have time to heal.

I’m growing restless here. Tomorrow I will venture out in disguise and have some good food for once.

_13th_

Star is dead, and I am framed for her death. I am a terrorist now. I am a murderer now. I am wanted. Hunted. So much for good food.

Her boy tells me through clenched teeth that he does not believe any of it, which is fortunate for me, because I’m not confident he would restrain himself if it were true, and I would be a fool to challenge anyone who has the strength to fight the dire beasts that used to populate these caves. I stumbled on some animal’s bones while wandering in the dark yesterday, and these were not the bones of any sort of creature I would have the courage to face down, even with five of Seth’s best at my side. Terrifying. I was a mosquito to a bear, and he took pity on me, let me steal from him, let me sneer and laugh. Foolish.

With the princess gone, any promise of safety has gone with her. I should seek proper shelter somewhere, but where does a villain go for refuge? The so-called ‘Monster Kingdom’ offers enticing promises to displaced monsters, but I don’t trust Eclipsa. She’s too familiar with the mewmans. Her words are too sweet. Her ambitions are too lofty. She can’t sincerely hope to offer a home to the entirety of the monster population in the sparse forests here, surrounded on all sides by closely guarded human and mewman territory. That she lays claim to any of the wilderness at all is absurd. These lands have been under the control of the larcenous Royal Butterflys for centuries now. It was always by their mercy and our will to fight that we ever had any freedom under their rule. And now these lands are, what? Turned over to a new Butterfly’s control? One barely recognized by the world? And this time with a banner offering aid to all? Ridiculous. More empty promises.

The boy doesn’t trust that this camp is safe anymore. He has moved me and my colleagues deeper into the caves. He spent some time with us, wondering with us over why the Seal would lie about Star’s death. Perhaps they lost her, but they would have to know she wouldn’t return, otherwise she would catch them in the lie and they would lose the trust of the people. Perhaps they think she has died, but then she would likely just be dead, and the boy refuses to believe that. Or perhaps they believe they have her confined in such a way that she can never escape. In that case, what are they using her for? I tell the boy what they have done to my people there, what they’ve taken from us, and he is furious to think they would do such things to the princess. Precious. She is not above this. But, vile as she is, as her family is, I won’t relish in her suffering. Not in some torture chamber, at least. Better by my hands.

_2nd of the Absent Moon_

The creature approached us today. It speaks. She speaks. She wants to know where the boy has gone, where the princess has gone. She carries a strange machine with her, and looks herself utterly misshapen. What is she? I would have taken her for a mewman by her speech, but her face is anything but.

We don’t know where the girl or her boy are, so she threatens my comrades with violence, and we don’t stand for it. We lose. Badly. She tortures me after it, delighting in my pain, knowing it can’t kill me. Calls me a pathetic ‘lizard’ as the humans do, and I start to guess what she is, but I cannot believe what she has become. Hypocrite.

She leaves us. Seeks out her prey. I don’t envy them.

_6th_

No sign of the creature now. We are resting easier, but I still feel restless here. We can’t stay here forever. And if the creature has her way, we may be in a dire situation. For now, we wake to find food and supplies, so the boy must live, but is never here long enough to talk or be seen. None of us has seen him venturing into the compound now. His attention must be elsewhere. Has he given up on the princess? Is she really dead? Or has he begun to believe the lies? Begun to see the villain in me as more than mere allegation?

I don’t dare go out. I have seen humans in armor patrolling the streets of my home. I long to see my friends, to know they live, to know the humans have not imprisoned them all to punish me for my ‘crimes’. I worry every night that my cowardice is bringing ruin to my kind. Pathetic. If I had the resources at the boy’s disposal. Kings. Demons. An army. Would he ever fight for me? For my kind? Certainly not while he thinks he’s got a princess to protect.

_11th_

The very much alive Princess of Ruin graced us with her presence today. She did not look well, disguised beneath a cloak, heavy on her feet. Perhaps I should have been surprised, but she came up on me with such familiarity and such purpose that it felt like only yesterday when she promised my safety. Lies. She tells me it will soon be time to come out of hiding and tell the world that I am innocent, that there is a growing evil in the world, that no one can stand idly by. I am to be used for her cause, a symbol to rally around. Shameless. A price for everything. I should have known.

To salt this wound, she holds me hostage with a favor. There is too much of her vile mother in her. Too much to ask that her boy’s warmth would spread to her heart. She needs something from the wilds, and she believes that I will help her.

She may be cruel and foolish, but she is not wrong. We go tomorrow.

_12th_

We have returned successful. As she leaves me behind, she tells me that in a week I will be free, with a smile, like she’s doing me some kindness. As if there were anything kind about putting me back in this hole for another week. As if there were anything kind about being ‘freed’ into servitude to her self-righteous campaign. I should have done it right then, cut her open, taken ownership of my villainous repute, stolen their precious princess away from them forever. But after what I saw today of her broken heart, I couldn’t.

She had me carrying around a book for her like some pathetic page. A bookmark pointed to a story stolen from my kind, a lesson about the dangers of mewmans and Magic, interwoven with herblore. There is a cure in this story, she says, and she needs me to explain what these plants are, since their ignorant mewman translator couldn’t be bothered to ask us for the right words after stealing them from us.

She sulks under her cloak in silence while we search, oblivious to her good fortune that these plants are even in season. A few days before, some would be nothing at all, and in a few days yet, most will be food for the bears. Her timing is unbelievably serendipitous.

She tells me she needs these to heal the friend she’s labored over so long – her Janna. Poisoned by power beyond her understanding. I wonder if the princess bothered to read our words at all, or if she just underlined the materials that were useful to her.

She carries another book with her. Something modern. She tells me it’s a record of another friend and everything that her people failed to do for the girl. She wants the truth of it.

Her face grows darker with every herb and berry I find for her, and when at last I point out the final one of the medicinal plants she seeks, she says she knew them all by other names, each and every one, so common in her childhood. She throws her book away in a fit of rage and curses the High Commission. Seems we were both betrayed by Magic’s darkness once. She must have thought it behind her. I see her wounds ripped open in front of me and I see spilling out from her the pain of losing everything you love. She knew.

I don’t ask, but she tells me about the girl. Young love. The childish kind where you practice writing her name mixed together with yours, and holding hands feels like a secret stolen from whatever pitiless gods watch this world. She tells me this and I get the impression that she doesn’t know that my kind knows love, that I’ve cried far too many tears, shredding journals filled with tenderly mingled names. Foolish.

I don’t ask, but she tells me about the High Commission, about her mother. After the girl died, her name was stolen from the princess, and the memory went with it, but the lesson remained, the pain. _Never let anyone else use Magic. It’s for them and them alone._ I hadn’t imagined that their cruelty extended to their own kind. Seems that when the Princess of Ruin destroyed the world, the girl’s name returned, and the lingering lesson grew into a twisted reminder of a betrayal that could never be avenged.

With tears in her eyes, she gathers up the last ingredient– what she called kernelberries, what we call bushteeth. She asks, and I tell her how to read the instructions hidden in the lore. We set a fire, prepare the tools we need. She dutifully puts together a potion that she thinks will right some wrong in her past, mend some scar that can never heal. Pointless. Janna is not Pel, I tell her. You cannot save one by another. Silence.

She returns me to the cave, thanks me for my assistance, calls me friend. Saccharine. She smiles too much, considering. Means well, even while she uses me, even while she puts me back in this cage. For my own good, she thinks. Like the rest of her line, the Princess of Ruin believes herself a benevolent matriarch. Dangerous.

I don’t know why I feel the need, but I tell her she’s being hunted by that menacing creature. That she needs to stay alive. That she owes me her word. Whether she lives or dies, I doubt I’ll see true freedom before this life leaves me, but I’m at her mercy, and maybe there is mercy in her. We’ll see if she keeps her promises soon enough. And if she doesn’t… I’m a villain now. I have a reputation to uphold.

[](https://www.cutercounter.com/)   



	23. Power to Heal

Star’s room was uncomfortably silent this morning. Every movement felt heavy. Every sound gave her pause. She dug around in her closet and pulled out a boring-looking brown duffle bag and started solemnly packing it with everything she hoped she would need for this, and the rustle of the fabric rubbing and folding with every item she stuffed in it was strangely loud. What did she need? Was she forgetting anything? This wasn’t the kind of day to leave something behind. She hoped even Marco would be impressed with how prepared she was. She was bringing along a first aid kit, the folklore filled with Rose’s annotations, the potions the two of them had crafted the day before, and a mishmash of implements for administering the treatment – different leaves, wooden bowls, matches. The whole process sounded like it was going to be a lot less _clinical_ than Star had expected – full of prayers and ceremonial stuff. Not really Star’s cup of corn coffee, but she didn’t have any choice now. This or nothing.

She looked around her room for anything else that might be useful. Maybe a change of clothes? No, this wasn’t a vacation. Just the essentials. When she came to her desk, she ran her fingers over an old notebook of hers, the words _Star’s Justice Keeper_ written on the cover in pretty cursive. It was collecting dust there, filled with notes about shady politicians and suspicious coincidences. A project she and Janna were working on before everything went crazy on them. It felt so long ago, but really it was only a couple of months, wasn’t it? Maybe when all this was over, she could get back into crusading for justice, holding people to charge for their garbage. For now, Janna was waiting. She opened the desk’s drawer and stole a few snacks from her emergency stash. Janna would probably be hungry after she woke up.

She donned a cloak to hide her face, since she wasn’t quite ready to be ‘alive’ just yet. Announcing it to the world would put a spotlight on her, and it would make things a lot more complicated if she got spotted while she was sneaking around wherever Meteora was hiding. There were already pictures of her floating around from the bus incident. No one got a clear enough shot to identify her, but the rumors were growing that something strange was happening at Butterfly Castle.

Star picked her most trusted blade from the wall. She wasn’t planning to take Rose’s warnings about the-creature-who-was-obviously-Mina lightly. She was amazed that the bitter little septarian had any interest in her well-being at all, but she was grateful for it. The night before, Star had sat down and spent a solemn hour or so with the sword, sharpening and polishing the steel. Frankly, between dealing with Rose all day, hunting down weird plants, having a bit of an emotional breakdown, preparing the medicine, and readying her gear, she was pretty exhausted. But it felt important to do it. It had been a long while since she’d touched the whetstone and the strop herself, but it made the sword heavier on her hip for it, and she _wanted_ it to feel like a burden today. She wasn’t sure she was ready to cut Mina down. The woman was sick in the head, but Star had never quite settled on whether that was her own twisted nature or something Solaria had done to her, and Star wasn’t super pumped about the idea of carrying on the Butterfly family’s pretty trashy legacy of just making their inconvenient mistakes disappear.

She sealed up her bag, and with her gear and her disguise, she was ready to go. She made her way down to the castle foyer to find Marco – over-prepared as usual for the trek with a massive mountaineering bag – and Tom, who had for some reason decided to wear a casual suit for this adventure.

When she got to the bottom of the stairs, Tom tried to be cool, but he couldn’t help himself from taking a few eager steps towards Star for a hug. He clapped her on the back a few times, “You had me real worried, you know. Marco’s been the only thing keeping our hopes up. It’s been… real bleak. Just real bleak.”

Star squeezed him back and stopped him when he went to pull away. She really hated how much she’d worried everyone she left behind, “Come on, you know me. I wouldn’t just disappear.”

“You did though!”

Star let him go and gave him a friendly punch in the shoulder, “Shut up. You know what I mean. Nice outfit by the way. You know we’re on a dangerous mission here, right?”

“Well that’s no reason to dress like a slob. I have a respectable brand to maintain, you know.”

Star was going to take another dig at Tom when she noticed little Mariposa Diaz wandering around the castle’s massive entrance hall in awe.

“Oh heyyyy, it’s Mariposa,” Star frowned at Marco while speaking to the girl, “What are _you_ doing here, kiddo?”

Mariposa turned away from inspecting a golden statue and answered defiantly, “I’m here to make sure you don’t mess things up again.”

Star put on a look of shock, “ _Again_? Did I mess things up before? I don’t remember messing things up before. Marco?”

Marco shrugged and waved it off, “She’s holding onto some old grudges today, Star, don’t worry about it.” Marco hoisted Mariposa up onto his backpack. The little girl dramatically pointed towards the door and commanded Marco to march forward, and he was happy to oblige. Marco held open the door for Star and Tom, “Shall we?”

“Why thank you, sir,” Tom bowed a bit to Marco as he walked through the door.

Star told Marco to hold up, “She’s coming with?”

“Yeah. She won’t tell me where this place is unless she can come.”

“You’re kidding me. We can’t bring a little kid.” Her fingers brushed against the hilt of her sword anxiously, “I don’t know what’s going to happen when we get there, Marco.”

Mariposa turned around to face Star with a stern look, “You want to find Janna or not?”

The kid’s words hit her like a slap in the face, but Star didn’t have to answer. Mariposa knew exactly how much power she had in this situation. She was usually pretty adorable, but today she had a different air about her, like she was just… bigger somehow. It didn’t occur to Star very often, but she and Mariposa were kind of about the same age, huh? Time shenanigans, man. One of the many, many things that she did not miss about her old life – and one that she wished would _stay_ in her old life.

While Star and Tom followed the Diaz siblings through a winding, disused path in a wooded park, Star discretely got out her phone and sent Tom a message.

_StarCap: I can’t believe she’s coming with us_

_StarCap: get her out of here if there’s trouble_

_TomOnFire:_ _👍_

_TomOnFire: Got your back._

_StarCap: ty_

_TomOnFire: Thanks for bringing me with this time._

_StarCap: np sorry we didn’t get you last time_

_TomOnFire: Sorry I couldn’t be there. Sounds like you could’ve used my help._

_StarCap:_ _🤷 live and learn_

Marco was right. Having Tom in on this was a solid idea. Star didn’t want any surprises this time, and some demonic powers would be very useful if things got weird.

Mariposa led them off the path and through the woods, into the wilderness near the Monster Temple. As far as Star could tell, they’d crossed over from Echo Creek territory and into one of the Forests of Doom or Itchiness or whatever. They were hard to tell apart these days considering how entangled the nearby Mewnian geography was with Earth’s. Any semblance of a cohesive forest was lost to the marbling of the terrain, and with all the other crazy problems cropping up in the world, no one had taken any interest in doing a survey to remap everything to where it belonged.

As they ventured deeper into the woods, thick tangles of branches and vines started slowing their progress, so Star took point with her sword to clear the brush away. She wondered how Mariposa even knew about this place.

“Hey Mariposa, do you come out here a lot?”

“Not a _lot_. But when—” she peered down at Marco with a brief look of concern, but decided to continue anyways, “—when we sneak out, it’s usually just around here.”

“It’s uh—” Star paused to vigorously slash away at some thick vines, “Phew. Tough ones. It’s pretty nice out here, ignoring how impossible it is to get around. Probably easier for you little guys though, huh?”

“Yeah I guess. I really like it out here. It’s a lot like home. My old home, I mean. Lots of cool flowers and bugs and frogs and stuff.”

“You know when I was little, I used to hang out in forests like this all the time. Swim in waterfalls. Climb cliffs. Chase monsters around with… with sticks. Definitely just sticks, ha ha. Good, misguided times.”

Mariposa joined in the reminiscing, “When I was little, I used to go hunting for spider meat with Meteora in the toxic bogs near our cave. She was always better at it than me, though. I hated how they screamed, and I never really got used to it, you know? One time I got real sick, though. Stuck in bed for like three weeks. Really sucked, but she took good care of me, so it wasn’t so bad I guess.”

Star nodded, pretending to have any idea what that would have been like.

Marco chimed in to share that when he was little, he used to organize the rocks in his backyard by size and color, and one time he stubbed his toe so badly that he had to get a little toe cast.

Star looked at him blankly, “We have had very, very different life experiences, huh?”

Marco nodded, “I was a sheltered kid, yeah. Actually, I still like to organize rocks sometimes, when no one’s looking. Don’t tell anyone, but I gave the old Diaz treatment to all the stones in the university’s gardens.”

Mariposa scolded him, “Don’t lump all the Diazes in with your weird rock stuff, Marco. Some of us know how to have fun for real.”

Star turned her attention back to Mariposa, “What _do_ you do around here for fun?”

“Oh, I usually just play swords and sneak up on snakes and lizards and stuff. Meteora climbs trees real high. We wrestle a lot. I usually lose.”

“ _Usually_? You don’t _always_ lose? How the heck do you out-wrestle Meteora? Isn’t she super strong?”

“ _Super_ strong. She’s also super ticklish. Really, I could win every time if I wanted to. But it’s nice to give her a chance.”

“Sounds like you two have a good thing going out here.”

Mariposa slumped forward a bit, “Yeah. We did.”

Marco reached up to her and squeezed his sad little sister’s hand, “Hey MP, I promise we’re getting you two back together, okay? It’ll be just like before. I’ll even pretend I didn’t hear that stuff about sneaking out.”

Mariposa nodded sadly.

They emerged from the thick foliage into a clearing that held a large stone ruin – an old temple, it looked like. A stone wall had partially collapsed, but the structure seemed to be generally solid. It was covered in crawling vines and thick moss. Between the leaves of the vines, Star could see runes and engravings of what must have been the spirits of the temple. The remnants of a yellow stained glass window sparkled in the sunlight that peeked through the rustling leaves of the canopy above.

The four of them stood in silence – though Tom was occupied with trying to pick burrs and leaves off his suit. There was a faint smell of a campfire somewhere in the distance, out of sight. Star listened for some sign of life, but the only movement in the area came from the breeze gently shaking the canopy.

Mariposa tapped Marco’s head, “Let me down.” She went off to the side of the temple and heaved aside a pile of heavy vines to reveal a wooden hatch on the ground. “We’ve got a little hideout down here.” Mariposa crouched down to give the hatch a special knock, then waited on her haunches patiently for an answer.

Tom, Marco, and Star shared a look and a nod. Hopefully nothing surprising would be waiting. Just a scared kid and a wounded friend. But they were ready for anything. Well, hopefully anyways.

After a while, some mechanism on the other side of the hatch moved, and out popped Meteora’s head with a menacing look on her face that immediately melted away when she saw Mariposa. When she leapt out of the hole, Star was a little startled to see the form she’d taken on. She was size-shifted to about Marco’s height, and she looked absolutely monstrous. It brought back some bad memories to see her like that. But with Meteora hugging Mariposa so lovingly and sincerely, it was kind of hard to be scared of her.

“Bork!” Meteora exclaimed joyfully, “What are you doing here?”

Mariposa returned Meteora’s embrace and whispered something that Star couldn’t make out. Meteora rolled her eyes and nodded in response.

Then Meteora’s attention turned to the others. “And what are _you_ doing here,” she sneered at Marco.

“Oh, uh, you know, we were just hoping you knew where Janna was.”

Meteora crossed her arms and took up a standoffish posture, “And what if I did?”

“Maybe you could tell us?”

“Why should I? So you can rat me out again?”

Star pulled her hood back and revealed herself to Meteora, “We’re not here to rat you out. I’ve got medicine for her.”

Meteora’s eyes widened, “Star?” Her pupils darted back and forth in excited imagination, and a smile slowly grew in the corner of her lips.

Star didn’t like the hungry look on Meteora’s face. It reminded her a little too much of the look in Mina’s eyes down in the cave. But what was she supposed to do, complain? They needed Meteora on their side right now.

“Is she down there?” Star asked.

“Maybe. Maybe she is.”

“Well, will you let us see her? Or is this going to be a thing?”

“Mmm… I’d say it’s going to be bit of a thing.”

Star gripped the hilt of her sword, though she didn’t really intend to do anything other than intimidate the monstrous girl – if that was even possible.

“Okay, if you insist.”

“Hey hey, hold on.” Meteora raised her massive claws in the air in a peaceful gesture, “I’ll let you see her, but you’ve got to do something for me. Janna’s got Magic in her. I want it, and I bet _you_ know how to get it.”

Before Star could protest, Mariposa took Meteora by the hand and gave her a pleading look, “Hey stop, just let them through, okay? Be nice.”

Meteora tried to explain to Mariposa, “I’m _being_ nice. I just want a little favor. For being so helpful.” Then she turned back to Star, “How about it, you can see her, but you have to give it to me. The Magic.”

“It’s making her sick.”

“Obviously! She’s not a _Butterfly_. That power is for us.”

“It’s also not _Magic_ , Meteora. It’s—”

Meteora growled at Star, “Grobb.”

“What?”

“My name is Grobb.”

Star looked at Marco, wondering if Meteora was feeling alright.

Marco whispered, “From when they were older.”

“Ohhhh.” Star turned back to Meteora, “Right. Grobb. Sorry. Listen, though: it’s not Magic. It’s dangerous and I don’t know _how_ I could even—” Star stopped herself. She saw how determined Meteora was to make this happen. “You know what, fine, how about this: I promise I will do _whatever I can_ to get that ‘Magic’ out for you.” Which, Star tried to reassure herself, was basically _nothing_ , so this was really nothing more than an empty promise.

Meteora looked at Star with suspicion, but eventually nodded that they could come down.

Before they descended into the dark staircase, Marco crouched down and spoke quietly to Mariposa. Star couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, but Mariposa shook her head furiously in protest and ran down the stairs after Meteora.

Star asked Marco what that was about.

Marco sighed, “She’s not going home yet, I guess!”

“Marco,” Star chided him, “You’re a _lot_ bigger than her. You can’t just… you know…” Star mimed picking up a sack of potatoes and heaving it over her shoulder.

Marco shook his head, “I owe her more than that. She didn’t have to bring us here at all.”

“Okay. Well, we’ve got Tom on standby with some demon doors or whatever.”

“That’s a fun name for them.” Tom lit his hands up with flame and wiggled his fingers whimsically in the air, “ _Demon doors_. But uh… could I see Janna first, maybe? Before I go. It’s kind of the whole reason…”

Marco reassured Tom, “Of course, dude! Of course. That’s why we invited you along.”

Star was definitely not thinking about reuniting Janna and Tom when she invited Tom along, but yes, sure, whatever you say Marco, obviously getting those two back in the same room is way more important that getting the helpless little kid out of there safely. She hoped he was just being nice, because he wasn’t usually so careless, and she didn’t need anyone being careless today.

The three of them followed the girls down the stairs. They descended a couple dozen steps under the ground, turning a couple of times as they wrapped around the foundation of the building. Sconces lit the way – apparently once equipped with torches, judging by the soot stains on the wall, but now each ring held a small ever-glow crystal taken from some Mewnian mine.

They emerged from the stairway into a large room. The doorway had a curtain of noise makers hanging in front of it that jangled as they passed through. A pretty simple alarm system. Judging by the look of the massive room, this used to be a kitchen and a sitting room, surrounded by a few smaller rooms – probably intended for food and drink storage. It was nice, and in remarkably good shape. The girls kept it very clean. A lit fireplace was the main feature of one of the walls – probably the source of that campfire smell outside. A large bubbling cauldron hung over the flames. A couple of chairs and a stack of fur rugs sat in front of the fire. Animal trophies were scattered around the room and hung from the walls, and the furniture looked cobbled together from sticks, animal skins, and bones. The décor made the room look a lot like the home the girls had made for themselves back in the Neverzone. Marco wore a look of deep sadness while he took it all in, for some reason.

“You okay?” Star asked.

Marco nodded that he was fine, but it wasn’t a very convincing nod.

Mariposa, meanwhile, looked happier than she had been all day. She busied herself with grabbing some boxed cookies and crackers and a mismatched tea set from a cupboard on the far wall. She set out the food on a low table that was surrounded by thick furs and cushions, then ladled some hot water from the fireplace’s cauldron into the teapot before sitting down to eat. She invited Meteora to join her, but Meteora declined, instead focusing on her promise to escort Star to her destination. She led them over to an adjacent room that was separated from the main area by a heavy wooden door. On the other side was a bed, and in that bed was a very unwell-looking Janna.

It looked like Meteora had been doing her best to treat Janna’s symptoms, but there’s only so much a kid can do for someone battling an arcane illness and stuck on the edge of consciousness. Janna was dressed in a fresh hospital gown. On a bone-and-leather table by the bed, a pile of clean gowns sat neatly stacked beside a bunch of other modern medical supplies. Star was surprised to see that Janna was still hooked up to an IV drip. Meteora must have stolen all this stuff from the hospital or something.

But despite Meteora’s efforts, Janna was still looking pretty rough. Way worse than when Star last saw her. What were previously just shifting patches of darkness on Janna’s skin had spread to cover her entire body. She seemed to be in pain, twitching occasionally. Star approached the bed, put her hand on Janna’s cheek, and spoke softly to her that everything would be okay. But when she went to touch Janna, she felt a familiar spark. Starlight? Why? It wasn’t this strong before.

Star gave the boys a moment to get out whatever hellos and missed-yous they needed. Marco just stood by the foot of the bed in quiet rumination, while Tom awkwardly tried to start a conversation with the unconscious Janna.

“How…uh… how you doing there, Janna? … Yeah, I hear ya. Rough week for everyone, ha ha. Well, Star’s gonna fix you right up, so don’t worry about it, okay?” He paused for a moment, “Cool okay good talk. See ya soon.”

Star tried to shoo everyone out of the room so she could get to work, and the boys were happy to oblige, but Meteora refused to leave. The girl insisted on watching, and Star couldn’t do much to object, considering the difference in their size right now and the fact that she sincerely needed Meteora to cooperate if this was going to happen at all, so she just sighed and accepted that she’d have to deal with Meteora watching over her the whole time she was working.

Star placed her bag on the bed, took her cloak off, and placed her sword on the ground. Then she got to work.

While she prepared the materials she needed for the procedure, she scolded Meteora, “Why did you keep her here, anyways? She obviously needs to be in a hospital.”

“Yeah sure, Star, I’ll just drag her back through downtown Echo Creek. They were _shooting at me_ when I took her the first time. With guns. Real guns. But hey, I’m sure the police will be super understanding about a giant monster girl carrying an unconscious human _back_ to the hospital.”

“Why did you take her at all?”

“Oh sorry, was I supposed to leave her there with some crazyfaced half-monster lady?”

Star shook her head in disbelief, “So Mina _was_ there.” Being right sure felt bad sometimes. “What happened?”

“I was sneaking out to visit Janna. So, you know, I wasn’t supposed to be there, and crazyface comes in, so I had to hide. I couldn’t see very well, but she had some kind of like… a weird torch or something? She did something to Janna with it and then… boom. Janna kind of… exploded? I’ve never seen anything like it. Just a blinding flash of light and heat, and the room was cooked, but Janna was fine. Well, not fine. A lot more purple than before.”

Star figured that Mina must be losing it if she was trying to mess with Janna. What was she up to? Just shoving Starlight into whoever she could? No wonder Janna was looking so rough.

Meteora continued, “After the explosion, there was basically nothing left in the room. Even the bed and the equipment were turned to ash. Somehow, I got away with just a few burns. Crazyface got…” Meteora shuddered and shook her head, “The whole top of her body was just _gone_. And then she started… growing back. It was super gross, and Janna was obviously not safe there, so… you know…” Meteora gestured at Janna’s bed with both hands and a look on her face that said she had made a really stupid choice, “Here we are.”

“Huh.” It had never occurred to Star that Meteora, once the evil headmistress of the School for Wayward Princesses, would be the kind of person to save someone from certain doom. She probably shouldn’t question it too much though. “Well, thank you for saving her. And taking care of her.”

Meteora shrugged, “Whatever. She’s got Magic in her. I just want to know how she got it.”

Star looked away from Meteora and tried to act stupid about it, “Yeah who knows. A real mystery, huh?”

Meteora rolled her eyes and gave Star a scornful look, “Yeah well it pretty obviously has something to do with that torch thing crazyface had. But I didn’t expect you to tell me, Miss ‘Destroy All the Magic’.”

“Hey come on, you helped with that.”

Meteora clenched her teeth and hissed at Star, “I was an _infant_.”

Star caught herself and quietly apologized.

Meteora replied with a dismissive sneer, “Just do your thing, okay?”

Star left Meteora alone and returned her focus to treating Janna. She opened the book of folklore flat on the bed and began following along with what she hoped was the correct process for applying the medicine. She wasn’t sure why this required so much ceremony, but she wasn’t about to question the wisdom of it. She lit some of the special leaves she’d gathered and filled the air with sweet smoke, then she waved her hands coaxingly through the smoke and covered Janna’s body with it before she whispered some prayers.

“ _You’re sinking into darkness, but today, be light. You’re bound to your mistakes, mired in your greed, but today, just today, be free, be clean. You’re a wicked coward, horribly corrupt, viciously mortal, but today, just today, just for one moment, be brave, be good, and be eternal._ ”

She didn’t really know what to expect from all this. She wasn’t even sure it was a cure for anything at all, really. In fact, something inside her kind of hoped… no no no. It didn’t matter anymore whether it could have worked back then. She didn’t know, and there was nothing she could have done. All that mattered was that today, right now, she was doing everything she could. Rose was right, you can’t save someone by saving someone else, but you can still save _someone_.

But still, she had reasons to doubt. The story made it sound like this ‘treatment’ would uh… _destroy_ a person, was the word they used, and leave them empty and powerless. But to Star, the way they spoke about power as a poison – something about that sounded pretty legit. Rose had explained that this was more than just medicine the way mewmans and humans thought about it. It was more of a negotiation, a summoning that pulled something out of the sick. Star figured at some point this thing would start to feel spell-like. Whispered words and intricate motions, right? But she couldn’t feel the familiar motion in the ether that normally accompanied her spellcasting. So what was the point of the words and the smoke and stuff? She didn’t understand the significance of any of it if she couldn’t feel something at work.

While she continued moving her hands through the smoke and over Janna’s body in the prescribed motions from Rose’s notes, Star found herself wondering why the septarians knew how to do any of this at all. They seemed to know a lot more about the arcane than she could have guessed. Like, Toffee knew how to take all the power out of the Magic – something even _Glossaryck_ didn’t have an answer to. And now she had to trust the septarians’ knowledge as much as she used to fear it. They _were_ nearly immortal. Maybe they were around _before_ Magic – and maybe there were once even bigger threats to their world than the Butterfly family’s arrogance.

She reached into her bag and produced the two potions she’d crafted with Rose – one a bitter-smelling salve, the other a drink with a sweet scent. The salve came first, and it had to be applied to the whole body, which uh… yeah… probably kind of awkward, but this was medical. Just business. She could be professional about it.

Star turned to Meteora and awkwardly asked, “Hey uh, could you maybe turn around for a bit? This is gonna be a little personal.”

“Why? You have to kiss her or something?”

“No, I uh… I have to take her gown off for the thing.”

Meteora scoffed, “You really haven’t had to take care of someone before, have you? She’s been here for a week, Star. I’ve seen it all.”

Star noticed that Janna _was_ remarkably fresh-looking considering how long she’d been here. Meteora must have been doing a lot more than just stealing supplies and IV bags for her.

“Right. Right right right. Well. I haven’t. Taken care of someone. This is weird for me, so some, you know, _privacy_ would be really nice.”

But Meteora refused to turn away.

Star frowned, “Could you at least _help_ , then, if you’re just going to stand there and stare at me?”

Meteora gave Star a dismissive look, but after a few seconds, she sighed and relented, “Alright, fine. What do you want?”

“I gotta rub this stuff into her skin,” Star said, pointing at the tub of bitter-smelling paste.

“That’s it? You’re kind of a baby about this stuff, huh? I can’t believe you get away with talking to us like we’re little kids.”

Meteora undid and removed Janna’s gown with cold, practiced motions. She folded it up and put it with the others on the side table, then the two of them started working the salve into Janna’s skin. Star instinctively looked away as soon as the gown came off, but she shook the shame of it out of her head. Professional. Professional.

They rolled Janna onto her stomach to get her backside first. It was about exactly as awkward as Star imagined to be massaging weird salve onto her unconscious friend’s exposed body. To distract herself, Star tried to make conversation with Meteora.

“So… you’ve… done this before?”

Meteora didn’t respond immediately. Star wasn’t sure the kid had heard her, so she was about to repeat herself, but Meteora interrupted her before she could, “Our mom. Irma. She raised us in the Neverzone. When we were… 12 I think? She got sick.”

“Oh. I’m sorry, that must have been…”

“Difficult? Yeah. It was. Everything was difficult. But we were a tough family. We all looked out for each other, especially when no one else could. Irma was stuck in bed for months before she left us. And Bork didn’t have the stomach for all the daily maintenance stuff that goes into keeping a sick person alive so, you know, Doctor Grobb to the rescue. Wasn’t enough, though. Still lost her. Bork was real messed up about it.”

Meteora stared intently at her hands while she worked the salve into Janna’s legs. There was a dark look in her eyes. Meteora always looked pretty angry, but this was different – sorrowful. Star figured it wasn’t just Mariposa who was messed up about it.

“You were kids. That’s not… kids shouldn’t have to deal with that.”

Meteora took a few moments to respond, and when she did it was just to shrug, “It’s fine. We did. We were stronger for it. Made it easier when Bork got sick and stuff. I knew what I was doing at least.”

“Mari—Bork got sick too?”

“Oh, all the time! She’s so freaking delicate. Irma took care of her before, but after she was gone, it was up to me whenever Bork was laid up with food poisoning or broken bones or whatever.”

“Well, you must have done a good job, she seems pretty lively.”

“Yeah, well, I couldn’t… I mean, I had no one else. If I lost her…” Meteora didn’t finish the thought.

Star tried to empathize, “I get it. Kinda. I guess. I sort of lost someone important to me when I was little too. Not my _mom_ or anything, but… I get that whole… _not wanting to lose anyone else_ thing.” Star looked at Janna’s face, still twisted up and wincing with pain even while she was unconscious, “I’m going to do whatever it takes to fix this. I can’t just let her… I dunno… disintegrate into nothing or whatever happens here.”

Meteora nodded. Her icy demeanor cracked a bit, and she gave Star a look that had a bit of warmth and recognition in it, which was a nice break from the contemptuous sneering.

“I hope it works out,” Meteora said, “but I’m still not letting you off the hook about the Magic.”

“Ah. Yes. Well. _Definitely_ gonna hook you up there. Soon as this is sorted out.”

Meteora gave Star a skeptical look, but she continued helping with the process.

In truth, Star still had no idea how she was supposed to _give_ Meteora the Starlight in Janna’s body. Honestly, she was under the impression that if this whole thing worked properly, the stuff would just kind of evaporate into nothing. And then she’d have a very angry shapeshifter to deal with. But that was a problem for future Star.

She tried to change the subject to something that she was wondering about since they arrived at the temple, “So, uh, _Grobb_? Is that right? What’s up with that?”

“What’s up with… my name?”

“I mean, you know, why not _Meteora_?”

“Because that’s not my name, and I’m sick of hearing it.”

“But it is kind of your name, right? It’s _a_ name. That you have. That your mom gave you.”

Meteora crossed her arms and looked at Star dismissively, “How about I give _you_ a name, then. How’d you like to be called _Dumpster Fire_?”

“Would _probably_ prefer not to be called that.”

“You sure, Dumpster Fire? It’s real fitting.”

Star didn’t respond.

“I mean Dumpster Fire’s just such a _pretty_ name, isn’t it?”

“Okay. I get it.” Star paused, “You know, I get enough of that already. Everyone’s always like, ‘ _princess, hey princess Butterfly_ ’. It’s super annoying.”

Meteora shook her head, “You really _don’t_ get it, do you? This is more than annoying. It’s like you people don’t even want to acknowledge it. Like what we went through, what we want, it doesn’t matter to any of you. This name is a gift from Irma. It’s my _real_ name. _Meteora_ isn’t. And no matter much my mom and dad want it to be, it’s never _going_ to be my name.”

Star paused to put her thoughts together. There was just something wrong about the way Meteora was so casually throwing it away. ““I just… I think… I think that name means a lot to your mom, to the people who love you.” Star tried to catch up with herself for a moment, “Yeah, that’s what it is. I saw what they went through to get your name back. It was a lot. Eclipsa and Globgor, they would have given up everything for you. You shouldn’t just ignore all that.” Star smiled a bit when she remembered something, “Plus, _Meteora_ is a lot better than your old name.”

“I had a _worse_ name than _Meteora_?”

“Oh yeah. Way worse. Back when I first met you, you were called _Heinous_.”

“When you… first met me?”

“When you were the headmistress?”

Meteora looked entirely confused.

“I mean, it’s probably not fair to call that _you_ , anyways. Your mom kind of wiped your slate clean with that weird black orb spell.”

Meteora still clearly had no idea what Star was talking about.

“Did… did your mom not tell you about where you came from?”

“‘When a mommy and a daddy love each other very much,’” Meteora started reciting.

“No no no… That’s not what…” Star was stunned that Eclipsa had just not bothered to tell Meteora about this stuff. “How old do you think you are?”

“Like 19ish?”

“Mmm… Mhm. How old do you think your mom is?”

“I don’t know, like 30? 40? Why?”

“Cool cool cool.” Star wasn’t expecting to have to explain Meteora’s history today, but she figured just being plain about it was a good idea. “So here’s the deal. You’re both hundreds of years old. Your mom? She was frozen in a crystal for centuries. You got taken away and then you were uh… like… stealing life force from princesses or something to stay young. Then Eclipsa got uncrystalized and found you again. And then you got super mad and tried to destroy the Butterfly Kingdom. And then your mom babified you because you were kind of unstoppable.”

Meteora stared at Star with an incredulous look on her face while she tried to parse that, then she responded with a simple, “Yeah that seems a little farfetched.”

“Yes. Fair. But it’s true.”

Meteora lowered her head in thought for a moment, then she asked with a smile, “ _Unstoppable_?”

“Oh totally. I hit you with everything I had – barely scratched you.”

Meteora’s smile faded into an introspective scowl, “Yeah, you definitely couldn’t call that _me_. I’m very stoppable. I’ve been beaten down more times than I can count, and it’s made me strong, it’s made me who I am. I’m not _Heinous_ , and I’m not _Meteora_. And you know, sucks for my mom that she fought so hard for that name or whatever, but none of you wants to acknowledge how hard _I_ fought for _my_ name.” She paused for a moment, then reluctantly conceded, “Except… _Marco_ … I guess…”

Meteora had been growing visibly less comfortable with every word she spoke, up to the point the she’d come to a full halt on massaging the salve into Janna’s skin. Star figured the name thing was probably a touchy subject, so she was about to drop it, but Meteora’s… Grobb’s… body language was a little extreme for mere conversational discomfort. She had her teeth bared, her hackles up, and her hands slightly recoiled in disgust from the skin on Janna’s leg.

“You okay?” Star asked.

“Yes. No. It’s fine. It’s just… I don’t like touching her this much.”

“Miss _I’ve Seen it All_?”

“It’s not that. Don’t you feel that like… static? It’s the Magic, right? It tingles like electricity, and it’s… noisy. It’s screaming to be _taken_.”

Star’s eyes darted around Meteora’s troubled face while she tried to digest what she was hearing. It _probably_ wasn’t a good thing for Meteora to be hearing the Starlight yelling at her.

Star was careful with her reply, “Well I mean… yeah, there’s definitely something in there, but uh, I don’t think it’s yelling or whatever.”

Meteora stared at Janna’s body with an intense, hungry look in her eyes. She was completely transfixed and unresponsive to anything Star said or did.

“Hey!” Star snapped her fingers in front of Meteora’s face a few times.

Meteora shook her head, “Sorry. Sorry. It’s… it’s distracting.” She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then stood up to leave, “I’ll be back. Just… I need a minute. _Call me_ if something happens,” that last sentence came with a death glare that gave Star the sense she should probably call Meteora if something happened – or else something would happen to _her_.

For the first time since the squad arrived at the temple, Meteora gave up her monstrous form and returned to her normal size. Then she went back into the warming room and closed the door gently behind her. Star heard Mariposa asking if everything was okay, then the conversation got a little too quiet to follow.

Marco opened the door a crack and sung out a friendly little, “Knock knock,” from the other side.

Star jumped up from her post beside Janna and urgently shouted back at Marco that he couldn’t come in.

Marco stood back from the door, but left it open a crack so they could talk. “Secret medicine. Got it. You okay in there?”

“Yes! Totally okay. Totally not freaking out. Very professional.”

“You sure? Smells like something’s burning.”

“Yup. Definitely something burning. _Promissory reed pods_. Perfectly normal, it’s part of the thing.”

“Cool cool, well just let us know if you need anything, okay? We’re just hanging around out here having tea and stuff and uh… you know, anxiously waiting to hear if Janna’s going to be okay.”

“Yes! Sorry. Tell them it’s going great and everything is great. This’ll take a while, but yup, super great. Janna will be up to her old antics in no time.”

Marco’s voice was colored by his usual warm, loving smile, “You’re not very convincing when you’re nervous, you know.”

Star laughed nervously, “Who’s nervous?” Not her. Too professional to be nervous about violating a sacred trust between friends and also maybe messing everything up and losing someone she loved forever. Again. Ha ha. Nope. Why was Marco making her think about this? She was deep in the zone of willful ignorance over here.

Marco paused a moment before offering some reassuring words, “Hey, you’ve got this, okay? And Janna _is_ going to be fine. And if you need anything, we’re here for you. Just ask.”

Warm and comforting. Classic Marco. She kind of wished he could be in there helping her out with this, but that wasn’t his part.

“Okay Marco thank you that’s very sweet, but it’s time to leave me alone so I can focus! Love you! Go away!”

Marco returned a soft-spoken, “I love you too,” before he mercifully shut the door and left her to try to stuff all that stress deep down back in the bottom of her mind. Nice of him to check in, but not what she needed right now. She couldn’t let herself get distracted here.

After rolling Janna over to make sure she got everywhere, Star was finally feeling content that the salve had been applied properly. It’d be gracious if she could cover Janna up, but her skin still needed to be exposed to the air for the next part. Star wiped her hands off on a towel, and then it was time for another round of smoke and prayers. Different plant this time. _Squid’s tooth_? Yeah, thick black leaves, that’s the one. The fumes from this one was dark and inky. It fell downward instead of rising into the air, so Star had to move the bowl over Janna’s body to let it cover her. The smoke covered Janna’s body like a sarcophagus, thick enough to hide her body completely. The shroud lingered on the surface of her skin, forming eddies and sometimes popping away as small sparks erupted from Janna’s tainted flesh – which was probably normal, right? The septarians’ story was not exactly a step-by-step tutorial on this stuff, so Star was kind of just hoping everything was going according to plan.

She whispered the prayer’s words, “ _We are drowning together, tied to your desires. Cut loose the want for more, or we sink into darkness here and now, in easy sight of the shore._ ”

Again, Star felt nothing, but the smoke and the salve were doing whatever they did. The notes said to wait for a while to let this part of the process work itself out, so she sat back and tried to figure out how exactly she was going to feed Janna the other potion. Can unconscious people swallow stuff? That seemed dangerous. Maybe uh… some kind of… tube…? That sounded like a thing doctors might use. She got up and rifled through the stolen medical supplies on the bedside table. There was something there that looked kind of right – a plastic-wrapped thing labelled _NG tube_. Of course, she had no idea how to use it. Aspiring doctor Marco Diaz would probably know, though.

Star cautiously opened the door to slip out into the main room to ask for help, but she was met with a tense scene and decided to wait it out from behind the door. Little Meteora was having a standoff with Marco – which, from Marco’s accounts of his babysitting gigs, seemed to be a pretty normal thing for them, but this was the first time Star had seen it. Mariposa was pulling at Meteora’s arm to try to get her to calm down, but Meteora was pretty incensed.

The girl growled at Marco, “I’m _not_ going back there. I’m going _home_.”

Marco protested, “Come on, Grobb, your mom and dad are super worried about you. And I talked to Star about it already. She doesn’t even think it’s _possible_ to open portals.”

Meteora was scathing, “What do _you_ know? As soon as I get that power—”

Marco interrupted her, “The power that’s got Janna _bedridden_?”

“Yes, _that_ power, _Marco_.”

“Okay fine, let’s pretend that doesn’t sound super dangerous. Do you even know _how_ to portal?”

Meteora clenched her teeth and scowled at Marco.

He continued, “Because, as far as I know, Star’s the only one who’s ever been able to portal on her own.”

Tom raised his hand, “Oh! I could! Before the Cleave. My family, too.” Marco and Meteora both glared at him, “But uh… not anymore. Since all the Magic wells collapsed.” More stares. “You know what, yeah, okay, I see now that you’re doing a thing here, sorry.”

Meteora grumbled at Marco, “I just never tried before. Can’t be that hard if _Star_ could do it.”

Star stepped out into the room to announce herself and to protest this unwarranted attack on her abilities, “Hey come on, I’m right here.”

Marco looked relieved to see her, “Star, _please_ tell her she has to go back to her mom.”

Star looked at the furious Meteora. She couldn’t risk pushing the kid away right now. Meteora wouldn’t hesitate to toss them all out if they lost the kid’s trust. Star shrugged and put her hands in the air a bit, “She’s taking pretty good care of herself out here. Maybe Eclipsa wouldn’t mind? But uh, yeah, about the portal stuff… I’m sorry, Grobb, but he’s right. Whether you know how to do it or not, there’s no way you’re opening a portal. When I did it, I was tapping into the entire well of Magic in the Magic Dimension. What we’ve got here? There’s just not enough power for portals.”

Meteora clenched her fists and lowered her head. Her teeth were grinding, but she couldn’t seem to find any words. Mariposa held her by the arm and told her everything was fine, but that clearly wasn’t enough for Meteora, who responded by tersely pulling her arm away and stomping off into Janna’s room. She shoved past Star to get to the door, and gruffly muttered under her breath as she passed by, “What do _you_ know?”

Star called after her as cheerfully as she could, “Okay, good idea! You keep an eye on Janna. I’m gonna ask Marco about a thing. Let me know if anything weird happens. Like uh… weirder than whatever that smoke is doing, I guess.”

Meteora slammed the door shut behind her without a word.

Star stormed up to Marco and started scolding him, “What did you do? We need her to be on our side here.”

Marco tried to defend himself, “I didn’t do anything! I was just trying to plan out what was happening next, and—” Marco looked over to Mariposa, who let out a little huff and turned her back on him, “—and I thought… I thought that after all this drama, maybe she might be ready to go back to her parents.”

Mariposa joined in on chiding Marco, “I _told_ you she doesn’t _like_ them anymore. Now you’ve made her all upset.”

Marco responded sternly, “Well, let her be upset. I didn’t promise you I’d keep her happy, I promised to keep her safe.”

Star interrupted, “Okay! You know what? Fun sibling drama later.” She shoved the medical package into Marco’s hands. “Tell me how to feed Janna with this.”

Marco inspected the thing and recognized it immediately, “Uh… _you’re_ gonna do it?”

Star nodded. She was confident it wouldn’t be too complicated to shove a tube down someone’s throat. The whole body is basically just tubes wrapped in meat, right? How hard could adding another tube to the mix be? But uh, just in case her confidence was a little unwarranted, which happened sometimes, she thought maybe asking Marco first would be a good idea.

Marco had an uneasy look on his face while he explained how to use it, “Okay well… you have to be careful, or you’ll cut up her esophagus. Normally they do this with a camera and stuff. It takes a lot of training to get it right, and they still mess it up sometimes.”

Star hesitantly nodded again, confidence draining away the more Marco talked about it.

“You basically need to slide this up her nose, then it comes out at the back of her mouth pointing down her throat, and you just kind of… slide it in and wiggle it around until you’re in the right spot – though knowing the right spot with an unconscious person is kind of tricky.”

“Cool. Yes. That is totally, totally something I,” a mediocre humanities sophomore and former princess from a medieval society, “can do on my own.”

Marco guardedly maintained his grip on to the package, “How about I help you out with this part?”

Star bit her lower lip. It would sure be nice if she wasn’t responsible for accidentally causing her friend to choke to death. But…

She leaned in really close to Marco and whispered her concerns, and Marco nodded.

“No problem. I just need to see her face, so you can just put up a sheet up or something.”

“No peeking, though! There will be zero peeks on my watch, Marco Diaz.”

“Star, please.”

“Okay yes _fine_ , you would never, but I still have to say it.”

Star felt like she was betraying Janna somehow with this, but she really didn’t know how else to proceed. Marco was the only one who had enough medical knowhow to feed Janna the potion without drowning her.

“Okay, Marco: you’re on standby. I’ll let you know when we need to do the thing.”

Marco gave Star a thumbs up, and she dutifully returned the gesture.

Tom – who, since being relegated to the sitting room, had been fidgeting constantly and nervously emptying the plate of cookies on the table – also put out a pseudo-confident thumbs up.

Star gave him a sad look, “Hey, you doing okay buddy?”

Tom coughed with his mouth full and quickly tried to swallow his food down, “Oh yeah. Yeah, I’m great. Just uh. Loving these cookies. Have one. They’re amazing.”

Star held up one of the cookies, which appeared to be a stale graham cracker, and put it back down without taking a bite.

“You look kind of stressed.”

“Ha ha, no. No. I mean I’m just sitting here chilling out. While you and Marco and some kind of cool little monster girl save the day, and thinking, hey isn’t it kind of weird that the guy with all the sweet demon powers can’t do anything to help a sick friend? That’s weird, right?” He grabbed a few more cookies and stuffed them in his mouth, gulped back a big swig of tea, and then mumbled through the crumbs to himself, “I think that’s kind of weird.”

Star figured the guy must be pretty miserable sitting around doing nothing like this. Even running in circles would feel better.

She put her hand on Tom’s shoulder, “Hey, there’s actually something I need you to do,” she lied. “I thought I heard something following us when we were walking here. Could you go make sure nothing’s hanging around up on the surface?”

Tom’s eyes lit up. He stood up and braced himself for combat, igniting his fists with demonic flame, “I’m on it. Consider this temple guarded. Come get me if anything happens?”

“Of course! We’ll be done soon, though, so don’t get too comfortable.”

Star, Marco, and Mariposa watched Tom struggle to get back through the tangled curtain of rattling bones that guarded the entrance to the room, then listened for the hatch at the top of the stairs to open and close.

Mariposa nervously asked Star, “Did you really hear something?”

“No. But you know, can’t hurt to take a page from Marco’s book and be extra careful today. Which is why it would be great if you waited at home, kiddo.”

Mariposa crossed her arms and shook her head. Worth a try.

Really, though, when she thought about it, just because she hadn’t heard anything, that didn’t mean that something hadn’t been following them. Mina could easily have been tracking them down in silence. It was something that was bugging Star since she left the castle. They could probably deal with Mina if it came to it, but having Tom on guard would at least take that one thing off her mind.

Janna would probably still need a while yet with the smoke stuff, so Star was considering sitting down for a snack, but before she could pour out a cup of tea, Meteora cried out to her from the bedroom. Star leapt to the door and told Marco to stay put until she called him.

When she entered the room, she found little Meteora doubled over, groaning in pain, grasping at the bedside table for support – and beside her, in the bed, Janna’s skin was perfectly clear again.

Meteora spoke in an accusatory tone through clenched teeth, “ _Something weird happened_.”

Star approached the girl to examine her. When she got closer, she noticed Meteora was faintly glowing with a dark aura, and when she crouched down, she saw them: the clovers on her cheeks were sparking. So that probably wasn’t super great.

Star reached out to touched Meteora’s cheek to feel for the Starlight there, just to be sure, and yup, it was sure Starlight. Star checked over her shoulder to get a better look at Janna. The black smoke had entirely disappeared from Janna’s body. The dark patches were gone. The flame symbols on her cheeks had vanished. It didn’t make sense. It _worked_? Without the other potion?

“What did you _do_?” She asked Meteora, trying not to freak out.

“The Magic was just flying off her, so I took it. I couldn’t just let it go.”

“Okay. Okay, well that’s cool and all. That you could do that. But you need to get rid of that stuff. Like right now. It’s dangerous. Go blast a hole in a wall or something.”

Meteora pushed Star away and backed up until she was against the wall, “No. No, why should I trust _you_?” Her eyes were full of fury and tainted with a dark purple light, “After all you’ve lied about, all you’ve taken from us…” A sick smile lit up Meteora’s face, “You just want it for _yourself_ , don’t you? **Don** **̔̕** **̨** **͎** **’** **̜̬͂t** **͍̲͠͝** **͋** **̄** **͚** **̦ỷ** **̇** **͓̠ou**?” She slammed an empowered fist into the wall – and even as a little kid, the impact caused shards of the raw stone to crumble to the floor.

Star emphatically denied what Meteora was saying, “No! I swear, that’s the _last_ thing I want right now. Please, just get it out, I don’t want to see you get sick too.”

Meteora laughed madly to herself. She breathed in and out slowly, a look of delight on her face. She was clearly savoring the feeling of the Starlight in her.

“This is it, isn’t it? This is what you’ve been keeping from me. Where did she get it, Star?”

Star shook her head and refused to answer, “Just get rid of it, Meteora.”

Meteora smiled with a wicked grin, raised her arm in the air, pointed her palm at Star, and unleashed a blast of dark energy that launched Star hard into the heavy door. A sharp pain shot through Star’s body and she crumpled to the floor.

“My name is _Grobb_. And you’re going to remember that after today.”

Star groaned and tried to stand up, but before she could recover, Meteora was in front of her, towering over her, wearing that untouchable monstrous form of hers – now made all the more intimidating by the dark energy sparking along her skin and in her eyes. Meteora wrapped her clawed fingers around Star’s neck and lifted her into the air.

“ **Wh** **̑** **̊** **͎̱e** **̼̻̎̏r** **͊** **̋** **̖̟e**?” Meteora demanded. “That crazy woman? Was it her?”

Again, Star refused to answer. This had to stop. All of this.

“Tell me where it **cam** **̛** **̧** **͉e** **̯͖͂̚** **̈́** **̈** **̲͉f** **͗** **̂** **̘̤r** **͛** **̄** **̮̝om** , Star!”

Star shook her head and struggled to speak through Meteora’s grasp, “We shouldn’t… have this…”

“Why? Because _you’re_ afraid of it? I still **neè** **̢͚̍d** **̋** **̗̤͒** **̹̘͗͒t** **̯̻̏͊h̀̃** **̢͎is**. It wasn’t yours to destroy.”

“It’s not… Magic. It’s poison.”

“This?” Meteora caused the energy to pulse through her body and into her arm as she slammed Star into the door, cracking the solid hardwood planks, “This sure doesn’t feel like poison. How about you quit lying and just tell me?”

Star felt like she was about to black out. She struggled to get free, kicking and chopping at Meteora’s arm, but the girl was too big and too strong to fight back against. She thought to call for help, but she could barely whisper with Meteora crushing her windpipe. She wondered why no one was coming to see what was going on. Surely they could hear Meteora shouting and slamming her into the door, right?

But then, through the door, Star heard the muffled sound of Marco yelling and furniture being tossed around. Something wasn’t right. Star’s thoughts raced back to the sounds of Tom leaving the cellar. Jangling curtain. Footfalls on the stairs. Hatch unlocking. Hatch opening. Hatch closing. Hatch… not… locking again… Oh. Oh no. No no no.

Star tapped Meteora’s arm, begging for mercy, and Meteora dropped her hard on the ground.

Meteora sneered at Star, “You ready to share?”

Star coughed and sputtered while pointing to the door, “She’s… here…”

Another muffled shout came through the door, and Meteora’s body snapped to urgent attention – a dire, determined look on her face. She shoved Star halfway across the room and slammed the door open. Then she clenched her fists, and the look of fear on her face twisted into a huge, menacing smile.

“Well if it isn’t crazyface. We were just talking about you.”

And sure enough, when Star gathered herself up enough to look out into the ransacked room, there was Mina – massive, menacing, and nearly as monstrous-looking as Meteora. She’d transformed from when Star last saw her in the caves. She was very large and very buff – to the point that Star wasn’t sure how she’d even managed to get down the stairs. Her face and limbs were made of a mishmash of scales, fur, and skin – and what skin was visible was badly scarred. Mina was grappling with Marco while a pretty roughed up Tom lobbed fireballs at her – but neither one of the boys was having much of an effect. Luckily, Mariposa was nowhere to be seen. Tom must have had the sense to get the kid out of there.

Mina casually tossed Marco away and marveled at Meteora, “Well, wouldja look at that. The disgusting half-breed abomination is here too. It’s so _nice_ having you all together! So many _choices_.” Mina looked around the cellar, “And y’know what, I think this place is pretty nice! Yeah, I could make this work. Alright! I’m moving in, roomies! I’ll put the desk here. The bookshelves can go there. The lab junk can go—”

While Mina was rambling, Star got up and hid Janna under a bedsheet. If Mina found Janna like this, who knows what that madwoman would do to her. Star wished for just a single solitary freaking moment to celebrate for once, but of _course_ that was too much to ask. She quickly grabbed her sword, then ran out of the room and shut the door. Hopefully Janna would be safe in there, but she made sure to keep herself between Mina and the door. She wasn’t about to let Mina past her without a fight.

Meanwhile, Meteora ignored everything Mina was saying and just sprinted forward to slam Mina into the wall. Holding Mina’s neck in one of her massive clawed hands, she spoke in a commanding tone, “You have something I want, so let’s just get this over with. Where’s the Magic coming from?”

Mina, smiling and entirely undaunted, peered over Meteora’s shoulder at Star, “Whoa-ho-ho hey, what’s this, princess? Ya didn’t tell her?” Then Mina spoke directly to Meteora in a coy tone, “It’s all in Janna’s secret stash! Comes out of a fancy machine. Since ye’r so interested in it, how about I show ya? I’ve got it all set up in my lab.”

Meteora laughed, “What? It’s that easy?”

“Sure, why not? We’ll do a trade. I give you power, you give me power.”

Star interjected to try to talk some sense into Mina, “I keep telling you, Mina, we can’t give you your Solarian Warrior business back. You have to give up on this and just deal with it. It’s gone.”

Mina smiled a sickening smile, “Aw don’t be so sour about it, princess. We’ve got the power, we’ve got the book, and now we’ve got a willing little spell monkey. The only thing standing in the way of progress here is _you_ , princess, so why don’t you just back off.”

Star cocked her head to the side, “Book? What… what book?”

“Uh duh, your little ‘baby’s first book of spells’ or whatever? Thanks for that, by the way. I knew it would be inspiring, but reading it myself, Queen Solaria’s chapter really got me right here,” Mina pounded her heart with her fist, “She really was just looking out for everyone. So merciful, so noble, putting an end to the suffering of all those monsters. A real hero of the people, Queen Solaria.”

Star was incredulous. That book was supposed to be very much stuck in her Secrets Closet forever – despite her best efforts to retrieve it. She was actually pretty torn about being separated from it, since she’d never actually gotten around to reading most of her grandmas’ chapters.

“Don’t tell me you forgot. _You_ gave it to me, ya mook. It was such a tender moment. You were all, ‘Boo hoo hoo my poor boyfriend,’ and I was all, ‘Remake Queen Solaria’s promise!’ And then you were all, ‘I don’t know how,’ – while crying, still, of course, because ye’r a pathetic little baby – and I told you you’d better figure out how. And you did! Well, almost. Close enough, really. Really surprised me, though. One second you were popping a spell book into my hands, the next second: poof! You were just gone! I figured ya stepped out for some fresh air, but then you were gone so long I had to tell the boss ya died. Still, got a cool book! And now I can just make any of your little Magical friends here do the spell, right? Speaking of, how’s that arrangement sound to you, half-breed? Do a little spell, get a bunch of power. Sweet deal, right?”

Star was shaken, and her fighting spirit was soundly deflated. Did she really give Mina the book? No. She wouldn’t have done that. That’s crazy. “There’s no way I—”

Meteora released Mina to the ground and smiled in agreement with Mina’s offer, “Sounds good to me. Lead the way.”

Marco dragged himself up off of the ground where Mina has thrown him and tried his best to stand tall while he implored Meteora to stop, “This is ridiculous! That’s Mina Loveberry, Grobb – the crazy lady who almost killed every monster on Mewni?”

“And why should _I_ care about every monster on Mewni?”

Marco shook his head, “You can’t be that cold-hearted. She attacked your dad, your mom – everyone in this room.”

“Did she attack Bork?”

Marco hesitated to reply. Meteora was so single-minded about all this. But he wasn’t done. “She will. She’ll kill you first I bet, then all the monsters, and after all the monsters are gone, the humans are next.”

Meteora turned back to Mina, “That true?”

Mina shrugged, “Oh I won’t kill _you_ – if you help me. And whatever little friends you want to keep safe, what do I care? But the rest of it? Guilty as charged! Come on, though. I’m sure I don’t have to tell _you_ that humans are disgusting. Don’tcha ever look at them and just think, ‘Whew, bleh, gross.’ You do, I can see it. You want to help get rid of them? It’ll be great. You can pave a way for a world that really celebrates mewman superiority. We can even overlook the horns and the tail. Maybe get some makeup for that purple stuff. But in the meantime, what d’ya say? Partners?”

Meteora was clearly torn about this offer. Star could hardly believe this was even a choice for her. Mina was reprehensible, through and through, and clearly not well in the head. And what, after a lifetime of hating monsters, suddenly Mina’s going to side with a half-monster for her plans? Sure, Mina had clearly been making some compromises on her vision for a monster-free world, given her own monstrous chimeric form, but she was obviously just trying to use Meteora. Even the kid should be able to see that. And if Meteora said yes… Star realized her fingers were wrapped tightly around the hilt of her sword, but she wasn’t ready. She wasn’t ready for this. This was her cousin. Meteora just wanted to go home. It was the Starlight doing this. Making her crazy. This must be what it does to people. Empowers the wielder. Puts on blinders. Amplifies desires. Star felt it all first hand. Yeah, it was just the Starlight. There’s no way Meteora could be this reckless. The girl wasn’t stupid, she was just passionate – and lonely.

But before Meteora could respond, there was a weird sound from behind them: two quick claps and a dry, weakly spoken utterance, “ _Updog_.” And even before Star could turn around to see Janna struggling to stand at the door to her recovery room, dressed in nothing but a clumsily wrapped bedsheet, Meteora had dropped to the ground, a mere child again, and soundly asleep – though even in sleep, the dark energy in her remained, gently radiating off of her body like a morning fog.

Star immediately lost her sense of the tension in the room and exuberantly sung out, “Janna! You’re okay!”

Janna replied in a parched voice, “Hey Star, what up? You the one who fixed me up?”

Star nodded, trying to hold back tears. She wanted so badly to run over and give Janna a hug, but she couldn’t. Star was the only thing standing between Mina and Janna, and she wasn’t about to let something else happen to her friend. Mina needed to be stopped immediately, before anything else went wrong.

Marco shook his head disappointedly at the sight of Meteora sleeping on the ground, “Listen I’m super glad to see you Janna, I can’t overstate that here, but are you seriously telling me you installed a hypnotic suggestion in a toddler?”

“Yeah dude, obviously. You didn’t? No? Oh Marco, have I taught you nothing?”

Star’s sense of relief was quickly torn away from her when Mina reminded them of her unwelcome presence, “Well, well, well. If it isn’t the oh-so-mysterious Shadowfire herself. Welcome back, weirdo. Hey, I’m collecting weirdos actually. Can I interest you in a creepy la-bor-a-tory for working on yer weird experiments?”

Janna squinted at Mina, and then a look of realization hit her, “It _is_ Mina. What happened to _you_? You look like a teleporter accident.”

“Hey, come on kid, I don’t look that bad. We’re still working out the kinks with all this stuff – but I feel great!” She turned around a punched a stone wall hard enough to put a hole in it, “See?”

“Oh. Yeah, no you’ve definitely got to be put down. That is… way too dangerous.”

“Ha! You’ve still got some bite in you, huh? I like that. And what do you plan to do about it?”

“One sec. Just want to make sure I’m getting all this right. You have my extractor? Yes? Okay. You destroyed my room? Right. And so you… were Larian?”

Mina shot Janna a pair of finger guns, “Bingo. Ye’r pretty sharp for such a weird little freakshow.”

Janna gave Mina a coy smile, “What to hear something real sharp? I did some research before I got messed up. Found out something about your mom.”

Mina’s smile faded for a moment, “What are you talking about?”

“Yeah, turns out she had a big secret she was keeping from you. Turns out that your mom—” Janna paused to perform a very particular whistle, “—was so stupid, she got _hit by a parked car_.”

And then, without another word, Mina collapsed on the floor next to Meteora, unconscious.

Marco put his head in his hands, “Janna. What the heck, dude? How did you even…”

Janna smiled at him, “You want a nap too, _chicken_ —?”

“—No!” Marco hurriedly covered his ears, “Never mind! Just tell me how long we have before they wake up.”

“Oh, they’re out for the foreseeable future, dude. Won’t wake up without the ~magic words~.”

The room was filled with a peace that pulled all the tension out of Star. Her arms fell limp at her sides, she dropped her sword to the ground still int its sheath, and she heaved a huge sigh. Finally. _Finally_. Star approached Janna and pulled her in for a huge hug, “I missed you.”

“Hey come on, be cool.”

But Star was so beyond being cool. She couldn’t let go of Janna. Her cheeks were already wet with tears, and she knew it was hopeless to try to hold it back. Huge, aching sobs spilled out of her, mixed in with bouts of uncontrollable laughter. Janna was safe. It was all worth it.

Star wiped her face and held Janna at arm’s length to look her over, “You’re really okay. I can’t believe it. You’re really okay, right?”

“Oh, no dude, I feel like garbage. I’ve definitely woken up in worse weird basements than this, but I usually still have my clothes. You have anything to wear?”

Star shook her head, “No. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know you didn’t have anything. I would have—”

Marco piped in, “I have some extra clothes, actually. Let me just uh…” He started digging through his massive backpack to find them. “They’re in here somewhere. Hold on.” Star marveled at how much stuff he’d brought and somehow managed to fit in that bag, but it didn’t seem like he was going to pull out an outfit for Janna any time soon.

Janna shrugged, “It’s all good, dude. I can rock a bedsheet.” Janna paused to take in the room. “So uh, how long was I…”

Star wasn’t even sure, she looked over to Marco.

Marco continued looking through his bag, but he replied that it had been a little more than a month.

“Aw man, brutal. I missed my finals.”

Star realized she too had totally missed her exams – and she suspected the university didn’t make exceptions for students who temporarily disappeared into the void. She’d probably have to redo the whole year. Was that even worth it? Did she even really care about that stuff?

Brief introspection aside, Star had to shake her head at Janna’s priorities, “You were in the hospital the whole time. I’m sure they’ll let you make it up, dude. But seriously, you could have died. Why are you worrying about school?”

Janna leaned against the frame of the door, clearly not fully recovered, and sighed, “I was gonna spend my summer digging up ruins. What a waste.”

Marco finally produced an outfit for Janna and handed it over to her, neatly folded up in a pile. He also suggested that maybe Janna could take a break from uncovering the dark mysteries of the universe for bit.

“You better shut your dirty mouth, Diaz. Dark mysteries are the reason I wake up in the morning.”

“Well they’re also the reason you got stuck in bed for a month, so…”

Janna nodded, “Worth it. Lemme get changed real quick.”

Janna disappeared into her room and returned in what was easily the least attractive ensemble that Star had ever seen. Baggy sweater, sweatpants, mismatched socks. How was Marco so organized and yet so terrible at fashion? It took everything Star had to get him to start wearing something other than red sweaters all the time, but his wardrobe was still absolutely atrocious.

Janna looked around the room, “Hey is there any food? I’m starving.” She spotted the snacks spilled all over the floor and made a beeline for the sitting table.

Marco protested, “No, Janna. Janna stop. You can’t just eat whatever after being unconscious for a month. You’ll get sick. Janna!” Marco tried to stop her, but it was too late. Janna was already seated and eating whatever stale cookies and crackers had survived the scuffle.

Star marveled at how unphased Janna was by the chaotic state of the room – chairs tossed around, stuff knocked off shelves and shattered on the floor, an exhausted Tom sitting against the wall trying to recover from a harrowing fight, and two devastatingly powerful threats just sleeping on the floor. It was just back to business as usual for her. Star sincerely missed having Janna in her life. Somehow, in a way that only Janna could manage, she was both a force of chaos and of stability that made the whole weight of the world a little easier to bear.

Janna raised her hand to ask a question, “Hey, is there supposed to be a crying girl under the table? Because there’s a crying girl under the table. Yeah hey I see you Mariposa, what’s up dude? Yeah, it’s safe, come on out.”

Mariposa crawled out from under the table, and Star shot Tom a stern look. How could he have let Mariposa stick around here for all that? Tom turned his eyes down and looked away from Star’s piercing glare. At least he was ashamed, but that was totally unacceptable. He somehow found a way to mess up his one and only job here, and they were all lucky to be in one piece in the aftermath.

Little Mariposa sat next to sleeping Meteora, occasionally sniffling and wiping tears away. She frowned and balled up her fists, “This Magic stuff again.” She turned to stare Star down and demanded to know, “What is going on, huh? Why are you letting this happen?”

“Me!? I didn’t start this!”

“I don’t care! I don’t care who started it! Just fix it! Make this stuff go away. It’s making her crazy and it’s… I can’t…” She choked on her sobs, “Please, this has to stop.”

Star didn’t really know what to do about it, though. This dark form of the Starlight that had been tormenting Janna seemed to hold a lot of influence over the people it got into. Meteora was definitely acting more aggressive than usual. And her eyes were absolutely hungry for more power. But it wasn’t like that at all when Star was charged up. Why was Star different? Or… was she? Just because it was light in her? She felt pretty manic the day she escaped the Seal. It wasn’t just the Starlight. It was her. It was her, but bigger, louder. And this was Meteora. Janna was Janna. It just amps things up. And the only way she knew to get rid of it for real was to… _do stuff_ with it – like with her spells. But even if she could persuade Meteora to waste it all, the kid definitely didn’t _know_ any spells. As far as Star could remember from when they last fought in the Neverzone, she only knew how to blast energy out of her hands. But maybe that would be enough.

“Hey Janna, what can you make her do while she’s hypnotized?”

Janna had her mouth full, but she responded anyways, “Oh you know, whapeveh, walk aroumb, pramvlape bookf, thap forp of fing.”

Marco repeated after Janna under his breath, “Translate… books? Why would you… Oh for the love of—”

Star ignored Marco and continued, “Look, she took the Starlight that was poisoning you. I don’t really know how to get rid of it properly except to just _use_ it. So can you make her uh… like… blast things?”

Janna swallowed her food and replied, “Yeah. Probably. It’s not puppetry, just the ~power of suggestion~. She’s just got to be slightly willing to do it and that’s enough, but you know, she seems pretty okay with destroying stuff. Should be fine. Wanna try it?”

Star nodded. If they could get Meteora to force this stuff out by disintegrating things, they’d be rid of it. And then all they’d have to do is destroy the machine. And the books. And uh… somehow… convince Janna to never mess with it again. That last one might be the worst of them, but, you know, baby steps.

Janna smiled and her eyes lit up, “This’ll be fun.” She clapped twice as before and instructed Meteora to stand up, and sure enough, the little girl stood with a blank, tired look in her eyes. Then Janna instructed her to go blast a few trees down.

But Meteora didn’t move. She slowly shook her head and growled a drawn-out, “No.”

Janna’s confident smile cracked a bit, “What? No? You can’t say ‘no’.” She performed the special clap again, then repeated the command.

Meteora puffed herself up a bit and roared back, “No!”

Janna looked uncharacteristically perturbed. “Uh okay, well that’s weird. I figured for sure she’d be pretty keen about messing up some trees. Anything else she might want to blow up?”

Star joked, “Marco.” Then she saw Janna nod and start to clap. Janna was taking it seriously. Star shook her hands emphatically, “No! No do not make her blast Marco I’m kidding.”

But Marco didn’t protest at all. He was deep in thought, looking at his little sister, a troubled look on his face. He spoke with calm determination, “She _would_ , though.”

“No! Marco come on, I was seriously joking. Don’t let her blast you, that’s way too reckless.”

But it was too late. He’d made up his mind. He stood determinedly and faced Meteora.

“Meteora, I know you’ve been waiting for this.” Star watched aghast while he mimicked Janna’s controlling claps and spoke his command, “Go on. Blast me with everything you’ve got.”

Little Meteora turned to face Marco with a sinister smile and slowly raised her arm. The dark energy inside her shifted and swirled around her hand, then tightened into a ball. Marco braced himself for the impact.

But nothing happened. Meteora lowered her arm. Her smile faded. And a spark of awareness returned to her eyes. She shook her head clear, then turned to Janna and growled, “How **dã̃** **̢̗r** **** **̇** **͖̭e** you.”

Meteora’s consciousness was fully returned. She quickly resumed her towering, monstrous form, and her first instinct was to charge at and grab Janna by the throat, “You won’t **con** **̡͙͂t** **͎͓͝r** **̒** **̠͖̍o** **̡̺̐̈́ĺ** **͇̈́** **̨** **̻̞̈́͗ me** , you little…” Then a look of realization hit her, and she loosened her grip. “ _You_ know. You know where it’s from. I want more Magic, Janna, or… or I’ll **des** **̖̑̕** **̧t̀** **̆** **̭̯r** **̆̇** **͍͜oy** you. And them. Everything.”

Janna looked at Star for guidance, and Star responded by making a huge X with her arms and shaking her head violently.

“Uh. You know what, sad but true: that’s the last of it. Just some leftovers from the Cleave. Who knows where it came from? Sucks. I’d love to get some more too, but what can you do?”

Meteora chuckled, “So that’s how it’s going to be? You’re making me turn to _her_?” Meteora pointed at Mina’s unconscious body.

Janna tried keeping up the façade, “Oh, she doesn’t have any idea where it comes from either, dude. She stole my notes on it, but you know, those notes just say the same thing: it’s all gone.”

Meteora growled and threw Janna aside, “I’m sick of this. If none of you will help me, I’ll take this into my own hands.” And with that, she started lumbering over to Mina.

Star realized this was about to go very sour very quickly. If Meteora ran off with Mina…

“Tom!” Star pointed at the wall behind Mina, “Gate! Now!”

“What? Where?”

“I don’t care! Not here!”

Tom fumbled with his hands for a second, but he managed to get his focus and opened a demonic gate right where Star was pointing.

Then Star looked at Marco and pointed at Meteora, “Marco, grab her! Don’t let her near Mina.”

Marco nodded and leapt into place between Meteora and Mina. He grabbed one of Meteora’s massive trunks of a leg and heaved upwards to throw her off balance, bringing her to the ground.

Meteora roared at Marco, but she wasn’t about to be stopped by his ~martial arts~. She reduced her size and managed to dodge through Marco’s grasp, nimbly leaping past him before returning to her combat-ready form.

Meanwhile, Star and Tom were struggling to drag Mina through the gate. If they let Meteora get her hands on Mina, there’d be no stopping either of them. There was no choice here.

“Tom, I’m going to hold her back. You got this?”

Tom groaned while tugging on Mina’s leg, inching her unconscious body through the gate. “Yup. Totally got this.”

Star gave him a skeptical look, but he looked pretty determined, so she tried to put her faith in him. Then she turned to face Meteora. The girl tried the same trick that she used on Marco, but Star was quicker on the draw. She swatted Meteora to the ground like a fly.

“I don’t think so. You’re staying right here.”

Meteora responded by buffing up again and grabbing Star by the waist with one hand. The girl slammed Star solidly into the ground, which sent another unbearably painful shock through Star’s body. Star was pretty sure she heard some cracking in her ribs. It was excruciating, but she didn’t even have a moment to appreciate the pain before Meteora threw her across the room.

“I don’t think so,” Meteora replied with a snide smile, “You’re staying right there.”

Marco tried to leap on and subdue Meteora, but she just kept moving, dragging him helplessly along.

Aching and helpless on the ground, Star tried to assess the room. What could she do? Janna was weakened from a month of being bedridden and could barely stand. Tom was nearly through the gate. They just needed a few more seconds. But she couldn’t even get off her hands and knees from the pain.

Then Star heard Mariposa’s voice ring out loud and strong, “Don’t!”

Mariposa stood defiantly in front of the imposing Meteora, arms outstretched, a look in her eyes that commanded Meteora to listen.

Meteora came to a full stop and growled at Mariposa, “Get **out̋** **̮͘ͅ** **́͘** **̱͜o** **̛͌** **̦** **͜f** **͒** **̊** **̬͚** **̬̝͛̎t** **͎̞͌͝he** way.”

“No. Do what they said. Go blast some trees or whatever. Get this stuff out of you. Or… or I’m not talking to you ever again.”

Meteora huffed, “You don’t mean that.”

“I do.”

Marco was still scrambling around on Meteora’s back trying to find some way to restrain her limbs or bring her down, but it was no use. Meteora just casually plucked him off and tossed him aside again while she focused her attention on Mariposa.

“Bork, we can go home. We can go _home_! If they would just **coop̂̈** **̹** **̧e** **̝͙͌̏r** **̟̣̈́̔ate** , we could get out of here and finally get back to our real lives.”

Mariposa shook her head, “Not like this. Not if it’s gonna make you all weird. Not if you have to hurt people. And definitely not if you have to get help from that crazy lady. She’s so obviously not safe, Grobb. Why are you being like this? You’re not _like_ this!”

Meteora closed her eyes and lowered her head. “Even you. Even _you’re_ going to **stan** **͔̣͒̚d** **̪̻̕͝** **̋** **͗** **̧** **̺ỉ** **̜͖̐n** **͛** **̦** **͎** **̡͊ͅm** **̭̼̅͒y** **͍͉͌̚** **̈́** **̊** **̰** **̨ way**?”

“So what? Are you gonna throw me around too? Is that how you solve your problems now? Just hurting everything in your way?”

Meteora clicked her tongue, insulted, “It kept us alive. You don’t get to complain about it now.”

“I do! I do get to complain about it! This isn’t like before! We never had a real family before. A big family with friends and people who care about us. And you know what? I _like_ it. I _like_ Marco and mom and dad. I _like_ your parents. We’re not just looking out for each other anymore, Grobb. We’re part of something bigger and… warmer. And you can’t treat people who love you like this. You can’t push everyone else away and expect me to just be waiting for you. If you’re fine pushing them away… maybe… maybe you’d push me away too if I got on your nerves. Maybe you’d shove me aside if I stood in your way. Maybe you don’t care how much _anyone_ loves you, so long as you can get what you want. Huh? Is that it?”

Meteora turned away from the incensed Mariposa, “You know it’s not.”

Mariposa stood as tall as she could, trying to puff herself out and breathing aggressively. She wasn’t a particularly intimidating little kid, but she was definitely making Meteora back down.

And it was enough. Star watched with relief as the gate close behind Mariposa. Tom stood where it used to be, alone – or more accurately, he leaned against a wall looking very tired, alone – and Mina was gone wherever Tom had put her – hopefully somewhere inconspicuous.

But Meteora wasn’t interested in chasing after Mina anymore. She gave up her massive form and returned to her normal size – just a kid standing in front of her best friend, wishing she could be understood. Star got it, honestly. Back in the Neverzone, Meteora was a Magic-wielding powerhouse, Mariposa needed her to survive, and she probably felt like she was the only thing keeping their lives together. And now… Star knew how easy it was to feel overshadowed after losing your place in the world. She couldn’t lie to herself: she knew she’d welcome a return to world where she could be really and truly useful again – and the only world she ever knew where that was true was the one before the Cleave. If she didn’t have people supporting her and things to do to keep her feeling useful, what lengths would she go to to get back there? She’d rather not think about it.

Meteora clenched her fists. “Bork you’re my only family. My only _real_ family. No one else understands what we went through.”

Mariposa wasn’t done feeling furious, though, “Obviously no one understands. You keep pushing everyone away. How are they supposed to know if you won’t let them?”

“They don’t deserve to know! What have they done? They just keep us away from each other all the time. It’s torture for me. Doesn’t it bother you at all? Doesn’t it make you mad?”

“It used to. I mean a little bit now, too. But I get to see you, I get to love you, and one day we can spend all the time we want together. No one is stopping us, we just have to keep going.”

“And why does it have to be ‘one day’?” Meteora held up her hand and clenched her fist, showing off the sparks of dark energy, “It could be _tomorrow_.”

“Why does it have to be tomorrow!? Huh? What’s the rush? I’m not going anywhere!”

Meteora grumbled, “Maybe _you’re_ not.”

“What, are you planning to disappear?”

Meteora replied with a grim tone, “Monsters disappear.”

Mariposa’s aggressive stance deflated a bit, “What do you mean?”

“What do you think my mom’s always so stressed about, huh? The monsters in our camps, they go missing. Families get torn apart. You’ve seen the cops pushing us around. You heard about that kid who got shot last month – and that’s just the one that got reported on the humans’ news. They shot at _me_ while I was trying to save Janna! Monsters _disappear_ , Bork. I’m… none of us are safe. And if you’re hanging out with me, you’re not safe either. I can’t _keep you safe_ here. The less time we have to spend here worrying about all the crazy things people think about us, and the less time we have to spend never knowing which human is going to stuff us in the back of a van or pull a gun on us or whatever, the better.”

Mariposa was silent for a while. She locked eyes with Meteora, but with warmth and love and apology and longing all over her face. She fidgeted with her hands trying to think of what to do. Eventually, she said softly, “I didn’t know you were worried about all that.”

“Yeah. Well. It sucks to talk about it.”

Mariposa shook her head, “It’s still not worth messing around with this stuff. You don’t have to worry about keeping me safe. I just need you to be here with me. If the world is so bad, we need to stick together, and we can look out for each other like we always do. It doesn’t _matter_ where we are. But if you’re going to be all crazy like this, what am I supposed to do? I don’t feel safe anymore. I don’t feel like you’re even _here_ when you’re like this. Like, who is this?” Mariposa gestured at Meteora, “You look so miserable, so angry. Your eyes are so scary when you look at me now. We haven’t had fun in so long.” Mariposa paused, looked down, and rubbed her forearm uneasily with her other hand, “I _miss_ you.”

Meteora was gritting her teeth and clenching her fists. Star could hardly imagine what was going through the kid’s head. Star had never had a sibling or anything like that growing up. She’d never had just a single person in her life to take care of, that was taking care of her. Marco maybe? Kind of? But that felt very different from what these two had going on.

Meteora relaxed a bit, and as she did Star noticed something change in her. The energy radiating off of her started shifting its form. It was turning from that dark menacing miasma into a subtly sparkling, brilliant green. Meteora sighed and relented, “Fine. Fine, I’ll get rid of it.” She paused, then asked with a little smirk, “Is blasting Marco still an option?”

Marco raised up his hands in protest, “No thanks!”

Meteora stuck her tongue out at Marco, “You really do have to spoil everything, don’t you?” She turned to Star, “Come with me. I want to do this right.” Then she made her way to the stairs that led out of the cellar.

Mariposa let out a breath of relief and smiled. “Thank you,” she said to Meteora.

“Yeah. Well, we’ll figure something else out I guess.”

“We will. We’ll be fine. I promise.”

Meteora nodded, though she looked profoundly sad and defeated.

Star winced in pain and clutched her ribs while she followed Meteora up the stairs. They made their way into the woods until they found a good spot with plenty of dead trees.

Meteora raised her hands up and readied her power for an attack, but she hesitated to act. She asked Star, “So, what? Just let it out?”

Star nodded, “I mean I’m not an expert or anything, but that’s the best I’ve got.”

Meteora lowered her head, “You know, I really wanted to make this work.”

“Yeah dude it’s pretty obvious. But this isn’t how to do it. We’ll find a better way, okay?”

Meteora paused, still holding the Starlight in her hands, and solemnly asked Star, “Do you think it’s ever gonna get better here? For us?”

“Maybe. I mean, I’m working on it.”

Meteora replied mockingly, “Oh good, _Star Butterfly_ is on the job.”

“Oh whatever, Grobb. I’m not the only one. And someone’s gotta do it. I’d go crazy if I couldn’t help.”

Meteora heaved her shoulders, then she concentrated on the task at hand and unleashed a massive blast of green energy at a towering, decrepit tree some distance away. It disintegrated into dust that blew away in the gentle breeze. But that was only the start of the barrage. She pulled her arm back to charge up, then thrust it forward again to fire off another tree-atomizing blast, then another, and another, faster and faster, until Meteora was shouting with every shot, eyes closed tight, tears flying off her face as her head rocked wildly back and forth. The forest was foggy with sawdust by the time she collapsed onto her hands and knees. And with that, the faint aura that was emanating from Meteora disappeared. It was over.

Star cautiously approached the girl to examine her. She put her hands on Meteora’s cheeks and checked for the clover-shaped marks there. Gone. And she couldn’t feel any trace of Starlight inside Meteora.

Star let out a sigh of relief, “I think you’re good.”

Meteora sat back on her knees and wiped her face. She replied darkly, “Yeah. Well, we’ll see about that, I guess.”

“Thanks for doing this. I know you gave up a lot. But this is the right thing.”

“This wasn’t for you.”

“Yeah, I get it.” Star stood up and offered Meteora a hand, “Now we just have to deal with Mina and this’ll all be behind us.”

Meteora didn’t respond, nor did she take Star’s hand. She stood up on her own and silently made her way through the hatch and down the stairs without waiting for Star to follow.

The room was more-or-less in order now thanks to the boys putting everything back together under Mariposa’s guidance. Janna was seated at the table, resting her chin on her folded hands, a grateful look in her eyes while she watched Star feebly approach the table, and her usual plotting smile shaping her lips. Mariposa had set up another pot of tea and had managed to find even more snacks for everyone, and Meteora was taking time to apologize to everyone. Even though everyone was being very forgiving, she had a look on her face like a child being scolded for breaking an expensive vase. But her misery melted into a grateful smile when Mariposa hugged her and thanked her. The girls sat down at the table next to each other, holding hands and glowing with appreciation for each other’s company – though Meteora’s smile quickly turned into a look of shame whenever Mariposa turned away.

Tom was also apologizing to everyone at the table for letting Mina into the cellar. But he assured everyone that she was now in a secure location – the Lucitor dungeon – and they could deal with her whenever.

“No one’s ever broken out of there. Demonic walls. Very secure.”

Star wasn’t ready to feel like she could trust anything to be certain anymore, but she wanted to just forget all the troubles ahead of her for a bit and enjoy some time with her friends. She sat between Marco and Janna, squeezed Marco’s hand like she never wanted to let go, and threw herself backwards onto the thick fur rug behind her with her eyes closed. She had the biggest smile on her face. For a few minutes, she could ignore all the details, all the pain, all the work that lay ahead. For a few minutes, she could believe that things were finally going right. And for just one moment, her heart was unburdened by the weight of the world. Just a moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey. It's me, the editor. I published this a long time ago and spent a few weeks reflecting on it. I've decided I sincerely hate this chapter a whole bunch for a number of reasons, including: bad pace, weird tone, overly long, lack of tension/meaningful consequences in the conflicts, and a variety of other issues. The main plot beats are there, some of the dialogue is nice, but the whole thing doesn't quite come together in a way that meets my standards. Maybe one day I can return to this and fix it up, break it into a few chapters that actually feel fun, but I guess for now, please accept my sincere apologies that I dropped the ball so hard here.
> 
> \- [AR](https://aphantaray.tumblr.com)


	24. Epilogue

As Tom dragged himself out of bed, the weight of the daily routine ahead of him was already crushing his spirits. Another dismal day of dressing up in pretentious suits and attending stuffy meetings and writing reports and emails, and… waking up to a painfully empty notification bar on his phone.

How long had it been since Tom heard from Star? A few weeks by now, huh? Felt like a big gut punch with every passing day, but that wasn’t that unusual, right? She was pretty busy – especially now that she had to make up all her classes over the summer – and, if he was being honest, despite his best efforts, the two of them weren’t that close anymore. Maybe she just hadn’t thought about him in a while. That happens. That happens to everyone.

But this felt more pointed. More like a cold shoulder. He really dropped the ball at the temple that day when Mina got past him, and that stern look Star gave him… it stuck with him. Tom had betrayed her trust, whether he meant to or not, and she had no reason to forget that.

He pulled open a long-abandoned conversation with Star on his phone, wrote out a short, apologetic greeting, and hovered a shaky thumb over the send button. In the last few weeks, he must have rewritten that message a hundred times. No combination of ‘Hey’, ‘Sorry’, and ‘Never again’ felt like it was enough, though. He pulled his thumb away and deleted it all for the hundred-and-first time, then put his phone away with a sigh.

Before he tried to leave his bedroom, Tom checked himself over in the mirror, fidgeting with his suit and fussing with his hair, but nothing about it looked right. Nothing about _him_ looked right. What was he doing? His life barely felt real anymore. Just a monotony of deals and shameless self-promotion. His smiles were so obviously insincere these days, but everyone just kept grinning back. He shot one of his glamorous, smirking forgeries at the mirror to check, and for sure it was the fakest smile he’d ever seen, like something forced out for a family portrait in the middle of a bitter feud.

He stood motionless in the mirror for a while, taking himself in, and he hated what he saw. He tore his tie off, threw his jacket to the ground, and started undoing his shirt. That was it. He was sick of it. No meetings today. He had something more important to do. He threw the rest of his business attire in a pile on the floor, then opened up the bottom drawer of his dresser and popped out the fake back panel to reveal his super secret stash of casual clothes. He’d swore off this stuff for the sake of the company’s branding, but he wasn’t going anywhere, and he needed this. He put together a studded and torn punk rock outfit, then messed up his hair and marveled at the difference it made. When was the last time he dressed like this? It looked good. It _felt_ good. Sometimes the clothes really do make the demon, but today even that wasn’t enough. He had to do something that mattered for once.

He sent out a terse, mass email to impersonally and unapologetically cancel all his appointments for the next few days. They could wait, and if they couldn’t, well, forget them. He was basically in charge now. He chose Core Energy’s clientele, and they needed him a lot more than he could ever need them.

Tom walked out into the hallway with purpose and headed towards the lower levels of the castle. It was time to give his prisoner a little visit, take care of some unfinished business.

Star had said that she didn’t want to mess with Mina. ‘She’s in a cage, not hurting anyone, so just forget her.’ But that wasn’t right. That woman wasn’t safe to leave on her own. As confident as he was that the dungeon walls could keep her contained, he knew better than to assume the guards were uncorruptible. And a lot of demons shared her anti-human sentiments. He’d done his best to pick out the best demons he knew to keep watch over the cell, but still, in his heart he knew that she would get out one day. He’d have to take everything away from her – every ally, every refuge, every tool – he’d dismantle it all.

As he descended floor after floor into the depths of the castle, the air became almost unbreathable. Sulphurous, dry, and on the very edge of scalding hot. It wasn’t something that bothered _him_ , but he knew it was rough on the prisoners – which was kind of the point.

The dungeon halls were lined with prison cells – most of them empty. The Lucitors didn’t have many enemies these days. He passed through a few guarded checkpoints on the way to the most heavily fortified section of the dungeon – the pit. As he passed the final checkpoint, he emerged into a fairly large hall with two of his handpicked guards standing by a solid rock wall – the hidden entrance to Mina’s cell.

He nodded, “Hey Red, Chuck. How’s business?”

“The rambling never stops, sir.” Red nodded over to the tiny demonic gate window on the wall that gave a view of Mina’s cell. She was indeed rambling to herself about Queen Solaria’s glory. “We’ve got some bingo cards made up if you want to play. I’ve almost got a line.”

Tom glanced at the card, which was full of words and topics like ‘human inferiority’, ‘monster conspiracy’, ‘Star Butterfly’, ‘Queen Solaria’, and other fun things Mina liked to say. Tom politely declined to play, then told them he wanted the wall to the cell opened up.

“You got it, boss.” Red stuffed the bingo card in his pocket, then got to work.

The two demons each produced a massive brass ring that they then attached to the featureless stone wall to act as handles. Then they heaved hard on the wall, straining as they did. Slowly, the wall cracked open revealing an airgap chamber – a small stone room with another sealed wall at the far end. Tom stepped inside, and the guards sealed up the first wall behind him. Then he heaved the second stone wall open to reveal a cage with a heavily chain-bound Mina inside.

When Tom opened the inner door, Mina immediately started right in on her usual aggressive posturing, “Hey, it’s prince pretty boy. Back for another butt kicking?”

Red waved at Tom through the demonic gate window, “You good, sir?”

Tom, who was ignoring Mina’s cajoling, responded to Red with a thumbs up, then asked them to close the window for a bit.

“I’m not supposed to do that, sir.”

Tom responded with an icy glare.

“Yes. Sorry. Will do.”

“Thanks.”

The window closed with a puff of fire and smoke, leaving the room in darkness. Tom conjured a flame in his hand for light, and to look just a little more menacing in front of the prisoner.

Mina continued harassing Tom, “I couldn’t believe how easy it was to getcha. I figured, ‘Oh this demon guy is probably a pretty tough customer,’ but nope. Just another monster-smooching pushover. You should really join up with the winning side, pretty boy. You demon people are on thin ice. The Seal’s on the fence about you, and if they find out you’re keeping me here, hoo boy, good-bye Underworld.”

“Thanks for the advice. Where’s your lab? And what _exactly_ is the Seal up to?”

“Ho _ho_ , right to business. I like that. I don’t have any good reason to tell _you_ though, pretty boy, unless you want to make it worth my while.”

“Ah, no, I don’t think I will. But don’t worry, you don’t need a good reason. You’re just going to ~ _tell me_ ~.”

With a tiny mental flex, Tom dissolved Mina’s standoffish resistance into dull compliance. He felt just a twinge of guilt immediately after he did it. The light in Mina’s eyes died. Her body went limp. Marco would probably be disappointed. It really was a cruel thing to do to a person. But this was different. _Mina_ was different. Barely a person at all. Just a sentient bag of meat and bigotry. No one could fault him for this. And even if they did – even if _Marco_ did – he tried to tell himself he didn’t care. He needed this. The _world_ needed this. And if he couldn’t do anything else to keep his friends safe, at least he could do this. He’d take what he wanted from this wretched, irredeemable creature, and he’d make a difference for once.

\---

It had been a long, mentally exhausting day of morning-to-night condensed summer classes, and Star was looking forward to going straight to Marco’s place after this last lecture, but she was stopped by a delightful surprise as she was packing her books away.

Janna snuck up on her, smiled, and handed Star one of the two tall cups of coffee in her hands with a simple, “Hey.”

“Janna! What are you doing here? What’s this for?”

“Oh, you know, after all the trouble I put you through, I figure I owe you a coffee or two.”

Star smiled, “At _least_ two. We should probably do up a loyalty card to keep track.”

“Get ten stamps, earn a free life debt.”

“Double stamps on Tuesday.”

“Thank goodness, though. I was worried I’d never pay you back for all that.”

“Come on, dude. You’ve got to stop thanking me for this. It’s just what friends do.”

“And you have to stop saying that. What you did for me… that is _not_ what friends do, Star. Friends let hospitals and parents sort stuff out. I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but I’m not gonna question my good luck.”

What’s wrong with me, Star thought, is that I let my friends get hurt in the first place. Obviously Star would do anything to make it right. There was no question, and no need for thanks or coffee or whatever. But Star figured this all made Janna feel better too, so she figured she’d drop it.

Janna asked Star to join her for a walk around the campus, and Star was happy to oblige. It was a relief to see Janna up and about on her own for once. But even now, Janna walked with slow and careful steps, clearly still recovering.

“How’s physio?” Star asked, hoping the topic wasn’t too uncomfortable.

Janna flexed her coffee arm and weakly patted her bicep to show off, “I’ll be spelunking and vaulting fences again in no time.”

“Nice.” Star gave Janna a celebratory fist bump. “You coming back to school soon?”

“Nah. Gonna wait until the fall. They’re letting me catch up from home this semester, so you know, no rush.”

“Lucky you. I’m stuck here for like ten hours every day.”

“Oh, I know. Your schedule looks terrible.”

Star wanted to ask how Janna knew her schedule, but she realized it was a pointless question. Janna’s omniscience about her friends’ lives was unquestionable and inexplicable. She’d probably hacked into the university’s student records database or bribed an academic advisor or something. It didn’t matter.

They walked around the campus quad for a while until they found a quiet bench to sit on under a pale blue lamp. Star felt like she had a lot to say, but she didn’t really know where to start, so she just sat next to her friend in silence, looking at the brilliant evening sky, feeling a quiet sense of gratitude that this moment could exist at all.

Star was nearly done her coffee when Janna spoke up, “So I found a nice place.”

“For what?”

“For us. An apartment. Not too far from here. We could walk over right now, if you want.”

“Oh. Oh!” Star had completely forgotten about their plan.

Janna looked a little concerned, “You’re still into that whole living together thing, right?”

“Yeah! Yeah of course.”

Janna gave Star a sly smile, “Good, because _Star Butterfly_ already signed the lease. Move-in day is Saturday.”

“ _This_ Saturday!?”

“Yeah. No rush for you to move or anything, but my parents are sick of holding onto all my junk, and uh… if you feel like helping me carry some things, I could definitely make it worth your while.”

Star laughed, “Another free coffee?”

Janna, enigmatic as ever, replied that it would be, “Something like that.”

Star couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She could really move out of her parents’ place. It was happening pretty fast, though. How would she even afford this? She’d have to find a job or something, because there was no way she would stand for letting her family pay her rent. She should be taking care of herself. That was the whole point.

But despite that little bit of anxiety, Star was feeling pretty giddy about it. She leapt to her feet, lobbed her empty cup into a nearby garbage can, and clapped her hands with joy. “Let’s go see it!” She held out her hand and helped Janna get off the bench.

It really was only a few minutes away from the campus. Star was amazed. And it was so affordable, from what Janna told her. It wasn’t the nicest neighborhood and the stout apartment building looked a little rough from the street, sure, but it really was their own place. There was even a nice little bodega next door. Star marveled at the exterior of the building, planning what she would need to bring with her, imagining how her new room would look, and generally feeling great about the next week’s adventure of getting settled.

Janna interrupted Star’s gleeful machinations with an unusually somber request, “Hey Star, there’s uh… something else I wanted to talk about.” Star noticed Janna had leaned herself up against a lamppost to catch her breath a bit. She was clearly not doing great with all this walking around. It was nice of her to come out, but she should probably still be resting up.

Star calmed down a bit to listen to Janna, “Oh uh, sure, hit me.”

“You told me Magic kind of… stuck with you. Like you wanted it back.”

“Yeah…?”

“Still?”

Star felt the joy of the evening evaporating away. She rubbed her arm uneasily, “What’s this about?”

Janna took a deep breath before revealing her real question, “Will you teach me? Magic, Starlight, all of it.”

Star gave her friend a concerned look, “Janna…”

“If it happens again—”

“It won’t.”

“It might,” Janna insisted. “You don’t know what Mina’s up to. What the Seal’s up to? We’re targets now.”

“If it happens again, I’ll just fix it again. You don’t need to mess with this stuff.”

“And what if you’re not around to fix it?”

Star didn’t know what to say. But she knew what Janna was getting at, and it wasn’t wrong. She didn’t want to think about it, and she especially didn’t want to admit it, but she had been wrestling with a desperate craving since the incident. She couldn’t imagine how bad it felt for Janna. But it was a terrible idea to keep poking at this hornet nest after getting stung so badly.

Janna continued, “If I can control it—”

“Come on, Janna, _I_ could barely control it.”

“Just show me. Show me how. I can’t let this… I want to be in control of my own life, Star. This thing is part of me now and I have no idea how it works, and it can obviously wreck me up pretty badly, and… it’s hard to fight…” Janna closed her eyes and caught herself, stopping just short of admitting something that Star didn’t want to acknowledge was a reality that both of them were facing now. “This feeling has been picking away at me since I woke up. I need to know I can beat it next time.”

Star looked away, trying to think of how she could possibly agree to something like this. And right now? After everything she went through? It was all still so fresh in her mind. Her ribs were still cracked from Mina’s crushing blows. No, she couldn’t answer this right now.

Star tried to avoid the topic, “It’s late. I’ve got to get going.”

“Just think about it, okay?”

Star didn’t respond to that. “I’m heading over to Marco’s place. You need help getting home?”

“No, I’m fine.” Janna paused, “But if you walk me to the bus, I won’t complain.”

Star nodded, “What are friends for?”

\---

Marco had spent a relaxing evening hanging out with Star in the living room after his parents had gone to bed. The two of them were having a good time laughing at their own sardonic commentary over a bad spy movie and, between action sequences, discretely romancing and snuggling into each other under a heavy blanket. Star seemed pretty exhausted from all the make-up work she’d been doing to keep her credits from the previous semester, but she always made time to spend with Marco, and he was always delighted to have it. When Star started nodding off, he flew her home, gave her a loving kiss goodnight at the doorstep to Butterfly Castle, then returned home feeling pretty tired himself.

Before heading upstairs, Marco made himself a pot of coffee. He planned to be up for a while. On his way to his room, he cracked open his sister’s door to peek in and appreciate how peacefully Mariposa was sleeping, then he continued quietly down the hall, trying to avoid the creaky spots on the floor.

He yawned a bit as he sat at his desk, then turned on his lamp and pulled out three books from the bottom drawer. One was an unlabeled notebook, one was a textbook on ancient Mesoamerican peoples, and the last one was a journal in a strange pictographic language – the journal that Star dug out of the Royal Library. He opened all three books to bookmarked pages and began transcribing collections of symbols from the journal into his notebook, then cross-referencing them with the textbook for potential meanings. It was slow, mostly-fruitless work. This was more Janna’s jam, but he wanted to tackle this one himself.

An hour passed before he looked up from his research to stretch his neck. He stood up to take a break and walked around his room, lost in thought. He was stuck in his work, puzzling over one page of the journal in particular. It was a meticulously labelled drawing of a massive, intricately decorated device that had the look of a circular doorway. It was strangely familiar, and that was bothering him.

Then he remembered where he’d seen something like it before. He pulled out his phone and flipped through his photos until he stopped on one that Janna had sent him a while back – a photograph of a page from a book he had later translated for Janna: _An In-Depth Travel Guide_. The book was lost to Mina’s clutches, but even just this page might be enough. He rushed back to his desk and held his phone next to the journal to compare the two pages, then whispered a celebratory cheer, “Yes! This is it!”

He excitedly copied the drawing into his notes, effortlessly translating the journal’s pictographic labels into English from the _Rikkotan_ labels in the photo.

  * Coagulate storage
  * Starlight extractor
  * Main circuit
  * Overflow containment loop
  * Aperture control
  * Targeting gimbal
  * Safety release



Each item had detailed schematics and records of materials required for the device, but even his knowledge of the _Rikkotan_ language wasn’t enough to fill in all the blanks. Still, it was a start. With this, he could begin deciphering the rest of the journal with confidence. He had a long way to go, but he was determined to fulfill the promise he made himself that day in the temple. He would get them home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi. It's me, the author. This is the end of Part 1! There's a lot more that I'm eager to explore in this world, but I won't make any promises about when Part 2 will start coming out. I don't have the same luxury of time that I did when I started all this. I also had _no idea_ this would get so huge. Really jumped off the deep end on my first fanfic here.
> 
> If you've read all the way through, I can't thank you enough for joining me on this journey. Much love, folks. Until we meet again.

**Author's Note:**

> I fell in love with the approach Daron Nefcy and her team took in addressing the classism, racism, and abuses of power in Mewni. I aspire to capture even a tiny piece of that in my own work - and hopefully without being too heavy-handed about it. If you'd like to stoke the fire in my heart and keep the word engine running, you can leave some nice and/or critical commentary about the work. I love both. I hope you enjoy this. Thanks for reading.
> 
> \- [AR](https://aphantaray.tumblr.com)
> 
>   
> 
> 
> [](https://www.cutercounter.com/)  
> 


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